Mystery: I Married the Queen of Mystery.

Chapter 290 A Brief History of the Balam Empire

As soon as the deal with the Hades Emperor began, Klein the Fool sat up straight in his chair: What? The Hades Emperor is the subordinate god of the Destruction Wolf?

Then he realized: No wonder the Hermit offered such a high price when I tried to trade information about the Ancient God and the Sub-God! It turns out there's a lot of important information in there!

Priestess Cattleya lowered her head slightly. Why was the Queen willing to share so much advanced intelligence with the Hermit? Was it because she believed this person could change the world?

Then she began to doubt: Does the "Queen" really know this information so well?
This was actually the thing that she couldn't understand the most. In her impression, the "Queen" really seemed to know everything, but she had hardly ever heard the "Queen" talk about intelligence from the Second Age.

The key point is that the relationship between the "Queen" and the "Hermit" made Cattleya clearly realize that the "Queen" did not treat the "Hermit" as a subordinate at all.

Then Cattleya recalled the Hermit's messenger, which made her feel even more that although the Hermit participated in the Dawn of the Elements, it did not simply use the Dawn of the Elements as its background.

The "hermit" seems to have other channels, and there seem to be other forces behind him.

The other members had not expected that the "Emperor of the Underworld" would have such an origin.

Audrey, "Justice," thought to herself: According to Mr. "Hermit," "Black Emperor" Solomon was a subordinate of the "Ancient Sun God" during the Third Epoch. "Night Emperor" and "Blood Emperor" were once great nobles of the Solomon Empire, and "Underworld Emperor" could actually be pursued into the Second Epoch.

The Hermit Odis paused for a moment before explaining in detail: "In the early days of the Second Epoch, the Hades Emperor was a subordinate god of the Destruction Wolf. After the Destruction Wolf fell, the Hades Emperor defected to the Phoenix Ancestor.

"Because of his ancient history, he is different from the other three emperors. It is said that the 'Underworld Emperor' is a feathered serpent!
"Currently, Beyonders on the Path of Death, after becoming demigods, will grow feathers on their backs in certain states. This seems to be due to the Pluto Emperor form.

"Actually, it's not just the demigod level. It's said that some believers of the God of Death or followers of the God of Death in strange states will also develop feathers covered in dirt after death."

The other members immediately made corresponding associations. Klein recalled the spirit dance teacher he met in Backlund. The old man he helped had disappeared, leaving only some feathers covered in yellow oil.

The Hanged Man, Alger, the Priestess, Cattleya, and Emlyn, the Moon, had all heard of similar things. They had never expected that the feathers that appeared with the Beyonders on the Path of Death were actually related to the Hades.

Cattleya even thought: No wonder the family emblem of the Eggers family, descendants of the "Emperor of the Underworld", contains feathered serpent elements, and no wonder many people in the Spirit Cult worship feathered serpents.

Audrey, "Magician" Fors, and "Sun" Derrick lacked the corresponding experience, so they did not make the corresponding associations.

Then, all the members seemed to feel the barbarity and bloodiness of the Second Age all at once. The "Emperor of the Underworld" turned out to be a feathered serpent!
The subordinate god is Quetzalcoatl, so who is the main god?
Alger recalled the names of the ancient gods: "Destruction Wolf", "Phoenix Ancestor", and "Dragon of Imagination". At least these three ancient gods seemed to be related to wild beasts.

Odysseus gave everyone a few seconds to make the corresponding associations, and when no one had any questions, he continued, "Regarding the process of the 'Underworld Emperor' becoming a god, I have obtained two pieces of information that are indistinguishable from true or false.

"I'll share these two pieces of information, or these two statements, with you all to make your own judgments. Then I'll share my own opinions.

"The first theory is that after the 'Phoenix Ancestor' perished at the hands of the 'Ancient Sun God,' the 'Underworld Emperor' inherited these characteristics and gradually became a god.

"There are two things this statement doesn't explain clearly. The first is, since it was the 'Ancient Sun God' who attacked the 'Phoenix Ancestor', causing its death, then given the 'Underworld Emperor's' strength at the time, was he capable of acquiring special abilities in front of the 'Ancient Sun God'?

"The second question is, if the 'Underworld Emperor' had already acquired the special ability, why did he become a god only in the Fourth Epoch?"

The other members were stunned. They had originally thought that the information was flawless, but after hearing what the "Hermit" said, it seemed to be full of loopholes.

Then everyone felt that it was a bit like listening to a history lecture by the "Hermit", and this time the "Hermit" spoke in great detail. They were able to follow the "Hermit"'s thoughts and sort out the issue.

Among them, Cattleya was summarizing the "hermit's" ideas while listening. She knew very well that a scholar's way of thinking about problems was the most critical, so she mainly focused on the "hermit's" ideas.

This is a good reference for her to think about the relevant issues.

Odysseus continued, "The second theory about the 'King of Hell' becoming a god is a conspiracy theory, which holds that the 'King of Hell' has secretly surrendered to the 'Ancient Sun God' in order to continue his advancement.

"And with the help of the 'Underworld Emperor', the 'Ancient Sun God' was able to find and severely injure the 'Phoenix Ancestor'.

"There are two issues with this statement that remain unclear. The first is that with the power of the 'Ancient Sun God' at the time, he wouldn't have needed any help to severely inflict a heavy blow to the 'Phoenix Ancestor'.

"The second is Herabergen, the 'Dragon of Wisdom', now the 'God of Knowledge and Wisdom'. After he betrayed the 'Dragon of Imagination'..."

"Wait a minute." Cattleya couldn't help but interrupt. "You mean, the 'God of Knowledge and Wisdom' also came from the Second Age, and was once a subordinate god of the 'Imagination Dragon'? And he even betrayed the 'Imagination Dragon'?"

Emlyn, who was standing next to Odysseus, smiled. The "Priestess" might never imagine how advanced the intelligence she had missed regarding the deal with the "Angel King" was.

Alger couldn't help but curl up the corners of his mouth: It turns out that the "Admiral of the Stars" didn't even know this.

"Yes." Odysseus simply answered and then continued the previous topic: "After betraying the Dragon of Imagination, the 'Dragon of Wisdom' also became the 'King of Angels'..."

At this time, everyone's attention was on the "priestess", and as expected, the usually steady "priest" showed a surprised expression.

Even Klein, who was behind the gray fog, smiled and thought to himself: In fact, when everyone heard the news, they were as surprised as the "Priestess".

Then Klein thought: Now we know that two of the ancient gods' subordinate gods became gods in later years. One is the "God of Knowledge and Wisdom" and the other is the "King of the Underworld."

This made Klein even more eager to trade with the Hermit for information about the Ancient Gods and Sub-Gods.

Although Priestess Cattleya was surprised, she didn't ask any more questions because the Hermit had already made the question very clear:

In the Second Age, the subordinate god of the "Dragon of Imagination", the "Dragon of Wisdom", betrayed his own god, gained the trust of the "Ancient Sun God", and became the "King of Angels" in the Third Age, and later became the "God of Knowledge and Wisdom".

Odysseus deliberately slowed down his speech. Seeing Cattleya's surprise at first, then her focus shifting back to him, and noticing the other members' expressions of watching the fun, then starting to listen to his description again, Odysseus continued:
"...Since they both betrayed their own gods, it doesn't make sense that the 'Dragon of Wisdom' became the 'Angel King', while the 'Underworld Emperor' didn't become a subordinate of the 'Ancient Sun God', that special group of 'Angel Kings'."

After discussing the two theories about the Hades' ascension to godhood, as well as the flaws in each, Odysseus paused and said, "Let me share my personal thoughts. They may not be correct, but are for reference only."

The other members nodded in agreement. The description of the "Hermit" just now made them realize that many extraordinary historical events did not have accurate answers, so they needed to make a reasonable guess from some clues.

After listening to the "hermit's" analysis, they were already very curious about this issue and wanted to hear the "hermit's" opinion.

Odysseus said: "Perhaps both statements are correct, or both are partially correct.

"At that time, the 'Ancient Sun God' severely damaged the 'Phoenix Ancestor', but the 'Phoenix Ancestor' did not die on the spot. According to information I obtained from other channels, the 'Phoenix Ancestor' still had time to throw the 'City of the Dead' Calderon into the depths of the spirit world.

"So the 'Phoenix Ancestor' most likely escaped after suffering a severe injury, perhaps dying after more than ten minutes or even several hours. The 'Underworld Emperor' was by his side when he fell, so he picked up some of the characteristics of the 'Death God' path.

"The other part of the characteristics was most likely picked up by the 'Ancient Sun God' who followed him. So after the 'Ancient Sun God' fell, the 'Underworld Emperor' obtained that part of the characteristics and ascended to a True God."

Everyone nodded in agreement, thinking that this was indeed a reasonable guess.

What everyone doesn't know is that there are many details that Odysseus deliberately did not mention, such as the fact that the "King of Hell" may have obtained the remaining characteristics from the "True Creator", so he has always supported the Solomon Empire, and during the Second Solomon Empire, he was still an ally of Solomon and the "True Creator".

To explain this, one would have to explain where the "True Creator" obtained those advanced characteristics. Not only would this be very troublesome, but it would also be more valuable information, so Odysseus skipped it directly.

Odysseus gave everyone time to digest the news before continuing, "The 'Four Emperors' War' has ended, and the 'Underworld Emperor' has won the final victory.

"I wonder if the 'Underworld Emperor' participated in the war in which the 'Black Emperor' fell?

"But judging from some of his later performances, the 'Underworld Emperor' definitely participated in the war that led to the fall of the 'Blood Emperor'.

"What I meant by the subsequent manifestations is that according to reliable intelligence, the 'Underworld Emperor' obtained the 'Red Priest' path, which is also the uniqueness of the 'Hunter' path.

"There's a high probability that it was spoils of war obtained by the 'Underworld Emperor'."

Everyone was stunned. They didn't expect such a thing to happen!

Before, when they heard the "Hermit" say that the "Underworld Emperor" did not join forces with the relatively weaker "Blood Emperor", but seemed to have formed an alliance with the "Night Emperor", they did not have any specific concept.

Only then did everyone realize that the "Underworld Emperor" not only joined forces with the "Night Emperor", but also obtained spoils of war in the battle.

Odysseus continued, "As to how the uniqueness of the Red Priest's path came into the hands of the Hades, there have always been two theories.

"The first theory is what I just said, that the 'Underworld Emperor' participated in the war that destroyed the Tudor Empire. However, there is one question I haven't figured out: why did the 'Underworld Emperor' only divide up the spoils of war but not the territory of the Tudor Empire?
"The second theory is that the 'Original Witch' took away the uniqueness of the 'Red Priest', but in order to gain a certain living space in the southern continent, she had no choice but to hand this uniqueness over to the 'Underworld Emperor'.

"This statement also has some obvious flaws, because that is the uniqueness of the adjacent path of the 'Red Priest'. As a deity of the adjacent path, the 'Original Witch' would not hand it over to the 'Underworld Emperor' so easily.

"Combining these two statements, I think it's possible that the 'Underworld Emperor' participated in the war, but didn't form a close alliance with the 'Night Emperor'. So after the 'Blood Emperor' fell, the 'Underworld Emperor' and the 'Night Emperor' didn't discuss how to divide the spoils. Whoever got it got it.

"Because the Red Priest's unique path was taken away by the Hades Emperor, the Night Emperor is naturally unwilling to share territory with Him.

"The collaboration between the Primordial Witch and the Hades Emperor was a natural progression. At the time, he could have either gone to the Southern Continent or joined the Six Gods and the Night Emperor.

"Even before this, the 'Original Witch' was unwilling to join the 'Six Gods' camp, which shows that she is quite repulsive to the 'Six Gods' camp. Therefore, she has few options."

At this time, Justice Audrey asked, "Mr. Hermit, isn't it because the Primordial Witch is an evil being that the Six Gods are unwilling to allow Her to join?"

Klein, Alger, and Cattleya all glanced at Justice. None of them thought so.

Odysseus thought for a moment before saying, "You should remember that during the time of the First Solomon Empire, the Church of the True Creator was the largest church in the Northern Continent. At that time, it was more like the Church of the True God."

Audrey was stunned for a moment, then realized what the Hermit wanted to say.

"In my opinion," Odysseus explained, "at the level of the gods, there is only success and failure."

The other members all looked at each other, not daring to look at the head of the bronze table, nor at the "hermit".

They had not expected that the Hermit would blaspheme the gods under normal circumstances, but they had not expected that he would dare to say such things in front of Mr. Fool.

After all, Mr. Fool lost most of his power for unknown reasons.

This is tantamount to irony, Mr. Fool is the one who fails.

Odysseus could sense that something was amiss in the atmosphere, so he continued, "Everyone should know that it's rare to find a deity as kind-hearted as Mr. Fool."

Everyone nodded in agreement. They could certainly hear that what the Hermit meant was that it didn’t matter whether Mr. Fool was one of the failed group. What mattered was that He was full of goodwill.

Klein, the Fool, who was behind the gray fog, also breathed a sigh of relief: Without this explanation, it would have been inappropriate for the Fool not to express his anger.

Then he thought: I have to find an opportunity to establish my authority again, for example, if the "hermit" says something excessive again, I will give him a lightning bolt.

But if he really did that, Klein was somewhat reluctant, because he shared the same opinion as the "Hermit" and also wanted to hear more of such "tiger words."

Odysseus was about to continue the transaction and quickly skip over the topic, but Emlyn the Moon asked, "Mr. Hermit, why is there so much uncertainty in the information about this transaction? What are your guesses?"

"Because there are very few records about the 'Underworld Emperor' in the Northern Continent." Odysseus was also happy to answer this question: "Or the Balam Empire established by the 'Underworld Emperor' is in the Southern Continent, and there are no remains of the Balam Empire or corresponding extraordinary information in the Northern Continent.

"In the Southern Continent, after the fall of the Hades Emperor, the Balam Empire nearly collapsed. Later, the Highland Kingdom, supported by the Rose School, and the Kingdoms of Pas and Hagati, supported by other extraordinary powers at the time, successively declared independence and competed for dominance of the Southern Continent.

"This caused the Balam Empire to lose a large amount of documents. Aside from the Spirit Cult, there are hardly any descriptions of the 'Underworld Emperor' anywhere else.

"Therefore, the deeds of the 'Underworld Emperor' can only be guessed from the other three empires, or some of the abilities and powers displayed by the 'Underworld Emperor'." In fact, there are too few relevant descriptions in the original work.

The description of the "Hermit" suddenly reminded the other members of something. Even on the Violent Sea, they had heard of the deeds of the "Black Emperor", "Blood Emperor" and "Night Emperor", but not many stories about the "Underworld Emperor".

Especially in terms of extraordinary history, everyone basically only knows that "Pluto" is one of the Four Emperors, and other information is not very clear.

Now that I think about it, this is probably related to the fact that it is rare to find relics of the Balam Empire.

Even if they were discovered, because the language and problems of the southern and northern continents are different, and the discoverers are basically colonists, they will hardly study the documents in the ruins, and will only care about the treasures and seals inside.

Emlyn said, "Oh!" and said, "This is very similar to the way some of our vampire scholars think when they study certain topics."

Odysseus thought to himself: You seem to understand a lot.

He said, "Let's continue the deal we just made. In the battle where the Blood Emperor fell, the Night Emperor also obtained corresponding spoils.

"I'm not too familiar with the situation in the Feysac Empire, but the Kingdom of Intis once possessed a Sequence 1 of the Red Priest pathway. I believe this was one of the spoils of war.

"During the era of the United Empire, the Red Angel Medici set a trap and killed the ancestors of the Einhorn and Sauron families. Since then, these two families have lost their Sequence 1 characteristics.

"Since Sequence 1 characteristics have reappeared, it's almost certain that they came from the capture of the Blood Emperor."

He paused and continued, "But I'm not sure if it was the Night Emperor or the Six Gods who returned the Sequence 1 characteristics to the Soran and Einhorn families.

"After the Night Emperor's fall, the four great nobles of Trunsoest and the Six Gods immediately divided up the gains from the early stages of the Four Emperors' War.

"Or rather, after the Six Gods united to eliminate the Night Emperor, they fell into conflict once again and couldn't wait to divide up the Northern Continent."

Audrey noticed that the Hermit's description of the Six Gods was not very respectful, as if he were describing some ordinary people who would compete for interests.

This reminded her of what the Hermit had just said: To the gods, there is only success and failure.

The implication is that there is no justice or evil, as long as you succeed, you are just.

Audrey knew very well that this was the fact, but she just couldn't accept it for the time being.

The others didn't think anything of it, or perhaps they were not devout believers in the righteous gods. After hearing so much information about the gods, they didn't think there was anything wrong with the description of the "hermit".

But Audrey is different. She is a devout believer in the goddess. The education she received since childhood makes her feel resistant when she hears remarks that are unfavorable to the goddess.

"The six gods at that time were roughly divided into four camps," Odysseus said. "First, there was the 'Goddess of Night' and the 'Lord of Storms' who supported the Augustus family in establishing the Kingdom of Loen.

"The close alliance between these two gods is not only because they knew each other very early on, but also because they are not gods from adjacent paths."

Klein couldn't help but interrupt with "world," "Sorry, you said they knew each other a long time ago?"

"This is also the conclusion I drew from some other intelligence." Odysseus did not hide this: "As far as I know, the Church of the Evernight Goddess was the first church to express its willingness to protect humanity and to develop believers among them.

"As for the origins of the 'Storm Lord,' besides the possibility of him being a sea monster, many people also believe that he was one of the earliest humans to follow the 'Ancient Sun God.'

"So they must have had contact very early on."

Everyone was stunned for a moment. They didn't expect that the Church of the Evernight Goddess had such a history.

At this time, Alger, the Hanged Man, followed up with a question: "So the 'Storm Lord' is a human, not a sea monster?"

"I'm not sure," Odysseus said, "because in some murals, the 'Lord of Storms' does appear more than once as a sea monster.

"But it also makes sense that he was the first to follow the 'Ancient Sun God'."

"Sun" Derrick nodded. He had seen it in the temple of the "True Creator". "Lord of Storms" was a description of a sea monster.

Odysseus added, "And when we were trading this information, we also mentioned that the Storm Lord's sea monster appearance was likely the result of the potion, causing some changes in his appearance."

Alger said "Oh" and felt much better.

Odysseus continued, "Let's return to the topic of the 'Goddess of Night' and the 'Lord of Storms.' The fact that they are not on adjacent paths lays the foundation for cooperation.

"At the same time, we've basically determined who their enemies are. The enemies of the 'Goddess of Night' include the 'God of War' and the 'Empire'.

"The enemies of the 'Storm Lord' are the 'God of Knowledge and Wisdom' and the 'Eternal Blazing Sun'.

“In this way, the contradictions among the six gods will be sorted out, and the power framework of the northern continent will also be basically clear.

"The 'God of War' couldn't possibly be in the same camp as the 'Goddess of Night', so He supported the Einhorn family and established the Feysac Empire.

"Eternal Blazing Sun couldn't possibly be on the same side as the Lord of Storms, so he supported the Sauron family and established the Kingdom of Intis.

"The God of Knowledge and Wisdom couldn't possibly be on the same side as the Lord of Storms, so he supported the Castilla family and established the Kingdom of Feynaport.

"Among the 'Six Gods', the most 'free' should be the 'Mother Earth Goddess', because she and the other gods are not on the same path.

"In the end, He chose to join forces with the 'God of Knowledge and Wisdom' to support the Kingdom of Feynapotter.

“But later in the Fifth Era, some conflicts seemed to arise between the believers of both sides. It was more likely that conflicts arose between the leaders of the two churches, and gradually evolved into a large-scale war.

"That was the 'War of Oath Breaking' mentioned in history textbooks. It resulted in the collapse of the small alliance between the 'Mother Earth Goddess' and the 'God of Knowledge and Wisdom'."

The other members once again felt that the situation in the Quaternary Period was becoming very clear.

This is incomparable to any other exchange. Generally speaking, at extraordinary gatherings, only fragmented intelligence can be traded.

After obtaining the information, you need to piece it together yourself, and it takes a lot of effort to get such complete information.

Therefore, Cattleya and others like to trade information with the "Hermit", because the "Hermit" describes all kinds of information in great detail, saving them the process of "piecing" it themselves.

Odysseus waited for a few seconds, giving everyone enough time to digest the information, and then continued: In addition to dividing up the territory of the Northern Continent, they also divided up the characteristics of the 'Night Emperor'.

"I'm not very clear about the situation in the Feynaport Kingdom, but I know that there is a Sequence 1 in the Augustus family that rules the Loen Kingdom.

"And I also learned from another channel that the uniqueness of the 'Judge' path lies in the hands of the Church of the God of War.

“As mentioned before, the ‘Six Gods’ at that time were roughly divided into four camps. Perhaps these four camps were dividing up the characteristics and uniqueness of the ‘Night Emperor’.

"The other two Sequence 1 traits are in the camps of the 'Mother Earth Goddess' and the 'God of Knowledge and Wisdom', and the 'Eternal Blazing Sun', respectively.

"In that case, the Feynaporte royal family is likely to possess a Sequence 1 trait of the Judge pathway.

"In other words, I believe that the royal families of the four kingdoms should each have a Sequence 1. This is the only way to achieve a balance of extraordinary power."

He smiled slightly when he said this. It was a good idea to use the characteristics of Sequence 1 to consider some historical issues.

After all, there are only three copies of the Sequence 1 feature, and their general movements can be inferred from many clues to distinguish the interests involved in historical events.

If we use this method to make guesses, the outline of historical events will basically become clear.

Klein thought: This is a bit like "sitting in a row and sharing the fruit."

However, he also felt that when something was unclear, looking at the problem from the perspective of interests could indeed lead to a guess that was closer to the truth.

The other members no longer felt any discomfort at this time, because they basically accepted the concept that "the gods also care about interests."

However, this benefit is not money. It could be advanced Beyonder characteristics, believers, or something else that the gods need.

This line of thought seemed to have opened a new door for Cattleya. She now realized that the process for the four ruling families in the Northern Continent to obtain advanced traits was so simple, it even seemed unbelievably simple.

Seeing that no one had any questions, Odysseus continued, "The Northern Continent that the Hades Emperor saw was just as described before, a divided one.

“In fact, before the Night Emperor’s death, the conflict between the Dark Emperor and the Night Emperor seemed to have eased.

"In addition to jointly launching the war against the Tudor Empire, they should have established some secret connections after the war.

"After the deaths of the Black Emperor and the Blood Emperor, the main conflict in the Northern Continent shifted from one between empires to one between the Night Emperor and the Six Gods.

"The Night Emperor wishes to have independent rule over the empire, while the Six Gods still treat him as a puppet.

"Out of consideration for his own interests and situation, the 'Underworld Emperor' should also establish some connections with the 'Night Emperor', or join forces on certain matters.

"But what was unexpected was that the 'Six Gods' surrounded and killed the 'Night Emperor' so cleanly and efficiently."

Odysseus paused here, and Audrey, the Justice, took the opportunity to ask, "Mr. Hermit, after the Six Gods attacked the Night Emperor, why didn't they immediately go to the Southern Continent and eliminate the Hades Emperor?"

Since they could potentially join forces, since the Hades Emperor also considered the Six Gods an enemy, and since they had already formed a temporary alliance, why didn't they go and eliminate the Hades Emperor? Completely eradicate the trouble.

Some other members have already thought of the answer to this question, while others are also very curious about it.

Odysseus smiled slightly and said, "You have such doubts because you don't understand the meaning of 'balance'."

He reminded again: "Just now I said that 'Underworld Emperor', 'Goddess of Night' and 'God of War' are gods of adjacent paths."

At this point, Audrey suddenly understood what was going on.

Odysseus continued to explain, "There's nothing wrong with the 'Six Gods' joining forces to besiege the 'Night Emperor,' because after the 'Night Emperor' falls, they can simply divide up his attributes. After all, no god is on the same path as the 'Night Emperor,' so there's no question of who needs those attributes more.

"But the 'Underworld Emperor' is different. After we kill him, how will the 'God of War' and the 'Goddess of Night' divide the fruits of victory?

"Even gods like the Eternal Blazing Sun, who are not on adjacent paths, would not tolerate the two of them dividing up the Death God's path.

"Because their original intention in joining forces to eliminate the Night Emperor was to prevent the emergence of beings higher than the level of True Gods and disrupt their rule.

"Of course, we won't allow the 'God of War' or the 'Goddess of Night' to become stronger."

　Thanks to [Pendant on the Rich Man’s Leg] for the reward.

　　Thanks to [余墨残香a] for the reward.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)