While his totem devoured the ten Immolation Blade experts and digested the gains, Harun processed the knowledge stored in Sangar's brain—the results baffled him.
"Mhm...we might be in trouble," Harun whispered, more for himself than anyone else. Someone or Sangar himself put a memory seal on his mind, ensuring that all critical information would vanish when probed. However, that seal itself spoke many tales. What knowledge could Sangar have access to that required a memory seal? Was it related to Nakula, or matters of the First Range? If the latter, who in the First Range possessed the strength or authority to force or let Sangar suppress his own memories?
Only one name came to mind: the Soul Refining Hall Master, Reverend Weeping Soul. Of course, Harun didn't exclude the possibilities of hidden masters, or Nakula himself. However, Sangar didn't bother sealing his skill or the clear memories of his relationship to Nakula. Yet, all things related to the First Range suffered strict suppression. The crux lay here, and now aware of Sangar's Divination Skills, Harun couldn't avoid making a parallel with the Soul Refining Hall and Truth Scrying Grotto.
Not a man to underestimate his foes, Harun reevaluated Reverend Weeping Soul. As the Truth Scrying Grotto and its branches avoided open conflicts or made sure witnesses couldn't testify to what they saw, not much was known about the Dream Seer Path's skills. According to common celestial knowledge, their cultivation levels were divided into seven realms: Canonized Soul, Awakened Wisdom, Truth Reverend, Void Return, Perfected Being, Sage King and Enlightened Emperor.
Mortals first had to experience 99 years of study and enlightenment before stepping on the Dream Seer Bridge. There was no shortcut to this, and though the Truth Scrying Grotto and its branches provided Longevity Pills to the talented, few could withstand such conditions. However, the stronger the foundation they established during the 99 years, the faster their cultivation speed would become. The most gifted could directly reach the peak of Canonized Soul, and within several decades, achieve Awakened Wisdom.
As his title implied, Reverend Weeping Soul stood at the Truth Reverend Realm. Most believed that his cultivation exceeded Sangar, as the latter didn't dare confront him. But none knew his age or exact level. At the same time, he refused the Excellence Assessment of the World Association, making his precise battle-power hard to estimate.
Harun was starting to believe that experts of the Truth Scrying Grotto had been hiding in the Heavenly Dream Land for much longer than estimated, and only made a large-scale "descent" due to the catastrophic events he prompted. But as Harun seemed lost in deep thoughts, stroking his beard as he pondered matters of a global scale, a slender hand grabbed the impossibly long beard, and stroked it with gentle care.
"Mhm, so smooth and glossy, like phoenix feathers," Jiyan said in that enchanting voice of hers.
"I know right? Enjoy," Satisfied, Harun stuck out his chest and nodded in approval, letting her cop a feel. But as Jiyan's stroking grew more delicate, and her smile more radiant, she tightened her grip around the beard, and yanked it off!
At first, Harun paused. But when Jiyan's white hand tossed his beard onto the ground, his body registered the pain, and a shrill cry followed.
"Aaaargh!" Harun patted his reddened chin while screaming his lungs out. Meanwhile, Jiyan gave the beard three good stomps, then burned it to ashes.
"You!" Harun snapped in grief. But Jiyan met his outrage with an uncompromising stance, and snapped back:
"Me what? Even if you don't want face, don't pull me down with you. Everything must have limits. So embarrassing. Shame on you! And stop pretending. I cut off your sense of pain already."
"You don't understand, this was a political move. In the gangsters' paradise, we have to use tricks like these to throw our opponents off balance and control the pace. It's absolutely not that I wanted to grow a guan yu style beard out of the blue. Oh wait, that's true," Only now did Harun realize that he indeed didn't feel an ounce of pain. Perhaps he'd gotten so used to pretending that his brain automatically faked the pain? That was the most likely explanation, right?
But in Jiyan and the merchants' ears, the out-of-place words sounded like an admission of guilt. And while they watched this theatrical display with glaring, "what the fuck" looks on their faces, the merchants' thoughts grew chaotic.
"Is this a celestial or a devil, a clown or a genius? I'm disturbed and confused. What am I even supposed to say or do?" As if united by one consciousness, the merchants had the same words circling in their minds. Brought back to seriousness by his responsible wife, Harun turned to face the mortals, and with a radiant smile, leaned over.
"Alright, this is how things will go down. I will requisition your stash of Sin-Glazed Flowers, you will give me your Honored Guest Pass to the Dark Stone Capital's Association branch. And when you reach the capital, reveal one-third the truth.
You were assaulted by the Immolation Blades, saved by a passing expert, and thanked him with a Guest Pass. However, the bandits escaped with the Sin-Glazed Flowers." Harun explained, and though at first confused, the merchants soon reorganized the previous events, and realized his intent.
It was likely that those merchants had been swindled by the higher ranked association member, that the branch never intended to trade in Sin-Glazed Flowers, and if all else failed, they would become scapegoats. However, with a savior and friend capable of challenging the Immolation Blades, the situation became different.
If the branch insisted on shifting blame, with Harun to support those merchants, the only way was to summon deities, and admit to the whole debacle. At best, no one would profit from that. At worst, many would die. The branch wasn't likely to take that suicidal road, and would instead try to smother the affair. At the same time, the "transparent" explanation of the merchants would help the branch's leaders realize that one of them had been playing a dangerous game—an internal investigation would follow.
Although Harun didn't think the mastermind would be silly enough to attempt murder, restlessness led to mistakes. And if he truly was that stupid, all the better.
Granted, they didn't have a profound understanding of the cultivation world, but the merchants mastered the politics of men a long time ago, and fully supported Harun's plot. Without hesitation, the leader pulled out a silver card, and presented it to Harun.
"Congratulations, Your Eminence, on becoming an honored guest of the World Association. Each caravan only carries one such card, and cannot sell it for less than 50,000 low-grade Divine Jades, or 1,000,000 high-grade Spirit Stones. But given the circumstances, the seniors won't dare argue. However, to make the card valid, you will still need to engrave your name and affiliation with your Divine Sense. When we return to the branch, we will handle the related paperwork and open your account."
The merchant said. All things had grades. Spirit Stones and Divine Jades were no exception. One-thousand high-grade Spirit Stones were only worth one Divine Jade. But strangely, a sublime-grade Spirit Stone was worth one high-grade Divine Jade—a matter for another time.
Receiving the card, Harun engraved the name part with "Lord Revelation," and signed the affiliation part with…"Treasure Hunting Gang."