As soon as the Human Emperor Banner came out, I became the Lord of the Old Ones

Chapter 126 Jueshen Dao

"Don't worry. My style has always been to not employ people I doubt, and to trust people I employ. I've finally met a card-making genius. Wouldn't it be a waste if I only let you maintain the temperature, shower, and sanitation systems?"

Xiong Ruyue waved her hand and said, "As for Boss Xiong, I've already dealt with him. We talked for three hours the night before last, and it was very intense. I finally convinced this stubborn blockhead. From now on, he will be in charge of the Rolling Stones team. The entire training hall outside is now under my charge.

"As for you, take advantage of the time when the Rolling Stones are about to play in the Dawn Cup and Boss Xiong and the others are tied up to arrange all the training cards. Now that the matter is settled, as long as the members have no objections, what else can Boss Xiong say?"

Xu Yan nodded.

The night before yesterday, he heard the Xiong father and daughter having a "heated discussion" on the business philosophy of the Kuangtie Club.

All I can say is that fortunately, after a month of contact, he has gained a certain understanding of Xiong Ruyue and Xiong Tieshan.

Otherwise, I would have thought that the father and daughter had joined forces to tear down the club!

"By the way, Sister Xiong, I'm really curious."

Xu Yan asked, "How did you convince Mr. Xiong... to introduce new facilities and services, including training cards, to the Crazy Iron Club?"

"It's simple. I showed him the account books and the bank loan records."

Xiong Ruyue said calmly, "When Boss Xiong saw the huge hole, he almost fainted on the spot. After he recovered, he just gave up everything."

"..."

Xu Yan was speechless.

It seems that I understand why Xiong Ruyue and Long Jianhuan hit it off so well and became as close as sisters.

Xiong Ruyue's eyes rolled, and she stretched out her arms and put them around Xu Yan's neck.

"Ayan, Sister Xiong treats you well, right?"

A "friendly" smile appeared on her face.

Xu Yan felt something was wrong: "No, that's right, so what?"

"So, can you do Sister Xiong a small favor?"

Xiong Ruyue's smile became more and more kind.

Half a minute later.

"Interview? No, absolutely not!"

Xu Yan struggled to break free from Xiong Ruyue's nearly-formed naked choke, shaking his head like a rattle. "Sister Xiong, this isn't about the money. I'm a gifted, talented card maker with a promising future. Working in a card-free club temporarily is fine, but you want me to be interviewed by the Dawn Media Group, the most influential organization in Dawn City?"
"If this gets out, how will I survive in the card maker community?"

After a month in Dawn City, in addition to inquiring about the city's customs, the distribution of power, and clues related to the Black Dream Organization, Xu Yan also gained a deeper understanding of the combat styles of the Heroic Era.

The so-called "card-free flow" is not just as simple as not using seal cards in battle.

Rather, it is an ancient system that is logically self-consistent but incompatible with today's mainstream development concepts.

The predecessor of the cardless flow can be traced back to the "Ten Commandments War" period more than a thousand years ago.

By that time, humans had already unearthed tens of thousands of old souls from countless ruins and ancient relics.

However, due to the lack of human knowledge about residual souls and the lack of skills to develop their own potential, humans often become puppets of residual souls.

When the situation was at its worst, the so-called "Kings of the Four Seas" were tools used by the Star Mage to implement the ancient will, and the entire world was controlled by the ten most powerful "Grandpas in the Ring".

Fortunately, these ten remnant souls of the past launched a protracted war in order to fight for supreme hegemony.

The war that spread throughout the world brought great disasters, and tens of millions of people and their homes were burned to ashes by the raging fire of ambition of the remnants of the old souls.

However, it also objectively destroyed the rule of the old remnant souls, allowing many human elites to master the methods of sealing and even eliminating the old remnant souls.

By the end of the "Ten Commandments War", the ten most powerful old souls had fallen one after another, and the final winner was also dying, and the fire of the souls was in the weakest, darkest and most disordered state.

Human warriors rose up and made countless sacrifices, finally suppressing all the remnants of the old spirits and regaining the dominance of civilization that had been lost for hundreds of years.

Before the human warriors could repair the shattered mountains and rivers, a very acute problem was placed before them: how to deal with the suppressed souls of the past?
Should they be completely eliminated, sealed away completely, and then slowly developed and utilized when civilization reached a certain stage of development? Or should they be screened now, releasing some of the remnants of the Old Ones who committed little evil during the Ten Commandments War and who themselves pose no significant risk, to accelerate the pace of civilization's development? Naturally, some humans, whose families had been torn apart and who had suffered greatly from the torment of the Old Ones during the Ten Commandments War, took the most radical stance, demanding the immediate and most extreme means to eliminate all the remnants of the Old Ones and allow civilization to fully return to the embrace of humanity.

They formed a sect called "Jueshendao" and pursued the dead in the manner of ascetics, hunting down the remaining souls of the old times scattered everywhere, and would not let go of even the smallest ripples and flames.

"The remnant souls of the past are like apples brimming with venom, constantly corroding the human body and will. No matter how rigorous the methods, they cannot resist their pervasive erosion. Even the slightest touch will subtly influence us, ultimately turning us into their puppets!
"No matter how powerful the power of the Old Ones, no matter how advanced the Old Ones' technology, what good does it matter? You must know that the four ancient eras we discovered were all destroyed by various apocalypses. This means that the Old Ones' civilizations carry the factors of self-destruction, and have some fatal flaw that we cannot understand or solve. Simply introducing the power of the Old Ones, even if it can temporarily accelerate the development of civilization, will eventually repeat the same mistakes and bring about the apocalypse again!

"Neither the supposedly omnipotent gods and demons of old, nor the ancient AIs with super-high computing power, are our saviors. At best, they are false answers worth learning from. Only by relying on our own hands and bypassing all false answers can we forge a true tomorrow!

"Humanity must rely on itself. To hell with the 'old man in the ring'!"

The philosophy of Jueshindō contained simple truths and soon became the mainstream thought at the time.

However, when people, under the guidance of Jueshen Dao, do not simply and crudely utilize the power of the old residual souls, but instead deeply study and analyze the memories of the old residual souls, extract a large amount of old technology and old cultivation methods from the memories, and use them to strengthen their own flesh and blood and brains.

Indeed, secret methods such as "Mimetic Breathing", "Wheel of Life Guidance" and "Mind Palace Meditation" have emerged to strengthen oneself and continuously break through the limits of life.

Nearly a hundred years after the end of the "War of the Ten Commandments", mankind has gradually shaken off the shadows of the past and embarked on a new path of "self-reliance and independent development".

The problem is that humans are never monolithic.

The "War of the Ten Commandments" will never be the last war between humans.

No matter how correct the philosophy of Jueshendao is, human beings' talents in cultivation and the degree of their hard work will ultimately vary.

Not everyone can resist the temptation to take shortcuts.

Especially when the survival crisis is imminent and the enemy has brought the war to your doorstep.

Who the hell cares about how much disaster will be brought about in the distant future by signing a contract with the remnant souls of the past and directly using the power of the past?
Pandora's box is opened again.

When a certain force is left with no other options and decides to bypass the lengthy, tedious, costly, and highly uncertain research on residual souls, and chooses to simply and crudely awaken the old residual souls and make them into secret weapons, its competitors are also forced to join the arms race.

When all the regular army of a country, under the leadership of the supreme commander, collectively signed a contract with tens of thousands of the remnant souls of the past.

No matter how far-sighted the rulers of neighboring countries are, how much they believe in the philosophy of Jueshendao, and how well they know how many problems the proliferation of the remnant souls of the past will bring, they can only bite the bullet and summon the ancient evil spirits that have been sealed for countless years from the bottomless caves, and arm their own armies to the teeth in the shortest possible time.

As the times progressed and technology advanced, sealing techniques, summoning techniques, and spirit-controlling techniques became more and more advanced and sophisticated, and the "Second War of the Ten Commandments" predicted many times by Jueshendao had yet to break out.

After the lessons of the "Ten Commandments War", the old remnants of the souls who saw the potential of mankind also changed their previous dominance and mostly appeared as "close partners of mankind", further reducing mankind's vigilance.

In this way, the remnant souls of the past took small steps and moved to the center of the stage again, deeply embedded in the development of civilization, and became an inseparable part of the civilization of heroes.

This time, whether it is those in power, scientists, or ignorant women and children on the streets, they all have the confidence that they can always grasp the dominance of civilization, and even after civilization develops further, they can explore and solve the fatal problems that destroyed the ancient era.

“Only by embracing the past can we create the future!”

This is the mainstream concept of the new era.

As for Jueshendao, although it did not become extinct, it evolved into a very marginalized niche belief.

In the eyes of the public, the loyal followers of Jueshendao are like old antiques who refused to use industrial products produced on assembly lines after the Industrial Revolution, and refused to use household appliances after the Electrical Revolution. They are old stubborn people with weird tempers and unfounded worries, or even primitive people who eat raw meat and drink blood.

Of course, Jueshendao made great contributions to the resurgence of mankind in the later period of the "Ten Commandments War", and the theory of "human supremacy" is also indisputably correct.

The various secret methods of Jueshendao for developing human potential are also very beneficial for improving the level of life.

There are also some special professions, special environments or when you are stuck in a long and difficult battle, where seal cards cannot be used.

These factors give Jueshendao and Wukaliu a certain living space.

It is normal for ordinary people to go to the cardless club to exercise and improve their life level, and then go to the spirit card club to purchase seal cards and learn the art of controlling spirits.

Even some larger spiritual card clubs will take the initiative to cooperate with the "cardless flow" and hire several cardless flow coaches to help members build up their bodies. After laying a solid foundation, they will then conduct training in the art of controlling spirits - after all, the "cardless flow" is famous for their well-developed limbs!

The problem is that Xu Yan is not an ordinary person.

He was planning to continue on the path of a card maker, and was also planning to open a Star Shop in Dawn City to start a second-hand card distribution business!
(End of this chapter)