Chapter 1 Crocell's Confession

Crocell’s confession was sincere and heartfelt, without a hint of falsehood.

Before Su Zhou could even ask, he directly and systematically explained the purpose of his trip and the potential reasons for his actions—after all, he was a cautious and shrewd person. He knew very well that facing Su Zhou, who possessed absolute superiority in strength, it was better to proactively explain everything to avoid being subjected to agonizing soul-searching secret techniques.

Although, in essence, his body was merely a clone created by secret methods, a puppet controlled by the Serpent Attachment technique, being tormented and soul-searched wouldn’t greatly affect his main body. However, the process of truthfully confessing was also a process of communication with Su Zhou and Shao Qiming, which was what he valued the most.

Recounting Crocell’s entire narration would be a lengthy discourse exceeding fifty thousand words, but summarizing it was quite simple.

—The point in time when the Holy Serpent Lianzhu Association initially failed to communicate with the Great Existence, namely Yala’s main body, coincided precisely with the period when Su Zhou concluded his journey to the underwater Dragon King’s ruins and reached the peak of the Extraordinary Realm.

However, that initial failure was considered normal by the Lianzhu Association, as the Void Ritual was indeed difficult to succeed.

And coincidentally, Su Zhou abruptly disappeared for three months afterward… During those three months, several rituals succeeded.

Ostensibly, Su Zhou was in seclusion in a secret realm, breaking through to the Leader Realm, but in reality, Su Zhou and Shao Qiming knew that he had gone to the Samsara World.

And as soon as Su Zhou returned to Earth, all rituals and ceremonies failed, and the reason for the failure could never be found… In fact, if that was all, the Lianzhu Association wouldn't have necessarily associated this with Su Zhou. But coincidentally, some time ago, when Su Zhou went to the Kunlun Secret Realm, preparing to go to the Beast God Realm for a mission, a test ritual of the Lianzhu Association succeeded.

And at that time, Crocell was remotely using the Serpent Attachment on a sleeper agent, and Su Zhou detected the spy's identity—coupled with the possibility that Su Zhou was a favored one who had obtained the Undying Blood of the Great Existence, Crocell boldly guessed that when Su Zhou was on Earth, his very existence would hinder the Lianzhu Association's every sacrificial rite to the Great Existence.

Theoretically, killing Su Zhou was the most important thing for the Lianzhu Association to do. They should gather all the organization's strength and launch a large-scale siege against Su Zhou…

Theoretically.

In reality, even members of mysterious organizations needed to make a living… Attack Su Zhou, the strongest person in the world, the official leader of the younger generation in Zheng, and a Leader Realm cultivator? If they could do that, would they still be a mysterious organization hiding underground? They would have already become the actual rulers of the American Federation!

So Crocell decided to adopt a roundabout approach, which was what he had previously discussed with Shao Qiming, intending to start with Su Zhou's fan group—although it sounded ridiculous, it was actually the same thing—to subtly achieve their goals and continue to maintain the organization's existence with Su Zhou's strength.

Anyway, they didn't intend to be enemies with Su Zhou. There was nothing wrong with hiding in the shadows.

Su Zhou: "So, this guy actually intends to affiliate himself with me?"

Shao Qiming: "That's right. In a sense, using your karma to communicate with the Great Existence is like borrowing your name to do things, like a fox exploiting a tiger's might."

Su Zhou: "Not entirely right. It sounds more like getting a license and allowing others to affiliate with you. Can I just lie down and collect money?"

Shao Qiming: "That's not unreasonable either."

Crocell: "If Mr. Su Zhou is willing to agree, it would be a good thing for both of us…"

"Yala, your followers have quite the quirky minds…"

Aside, Su Zhou, with a dark face and using spiritual energy to suppress Crocell and shut him up, chuckled inwardly and said to the Serpent Spirit, "A Great Existence's underground church and my fan group? Come to think of it, they are indeed the same thing, or at least not much different."

"But why does my existence cause their sacrifices to fail?"

"I told you long ago, these organizations were established by them using my Lianzhu Book."

In response, Yala simply sighed and said unhappily, "The Grimoire is, in essence, a part of the world's information transmission—in any world, there is a possibility of randomly appearing texts related to powerful existences from other worlds, true scriptures and grimoires."

"For example, if you, Su Zhou, left behind some cultivation techniques or philosophical classics in the Godwood World or the Samsara World, then when you reach the Overlord or higher realm, those texts and inheritances you left behind will begin to spread in other worlds, and you can gradually begin to sense those who cultivate your techniques."

"This is related to the characteristics of each person's cultivation. The path you are essentially taking is one of vow power and resentment, a system that resonates with desires, so this characteristic will manifest earlier."

As for why the Lianzhu Association couldn't successfully hold rituals when Su Zhou existed, the principle was actually very simple… He was Yala's covenantor, and was in himself a huge source of interference. Before he advanced to the peak of the Extraordinary Realm, there was still occasional information that could be sent out. After advancing to the peak of the Extraordinary Realm, basically any ritual held by the Lianzhu Association would be interfered with by his very existence and turn into a jumbled mess of code. It would be strange if they could get a response.

Thinking about it this way, it was quite reasonable.

In addition, Shao Qiming slightly asked Crocell if there were other Lianzhu Association members in Su Zhou's fan group, and whether he had any hidden tricks in the fan group, or attempted to smear Su Zhou's image.

And the answer was quite surprising—in Su Zhou's core fan administrator group, there were only 28 people, and excluding Crocell, there were actually five people from the Lianzhu Association! That was almost one-fifth of the proportion.

As for hidden tricks, there were none. Everyone worked diligently and was very active, much more active than normal fans. As for smearing, that was even more absurd. They were the ones who were most diligent in defending Su Zhou.

As for why, of course it was to avoid arousing suspicion. If you want no one to know, don't do it. If you want to not expose your identity as a spy, then don't do anything to sabotage it—moreover, their goal was originally to maintain the existence of the fan group. After all, they planned to completely control this organization in the future.

Good heavens, Shao Qiming blinked in confusion when he heard this: "I thought those people were professionals sent by the government… I didn't expect it was you guys?"

And Su Zhou also blinked in confusion: "Wait, according to this, the Zheng government must have sent people too. I remember Dao Sheng and Wen Sheng told me about this… So, doesn't that mean that nearly half of my administrator group are 'professionals'?"

After all, it was normal for other large forces to spare some resources and energy to pay attention to him, a Leader Realm cultivator… Maybe even the Jiangling Society had spies mixed in?

Zheng government, Lianzhu Association, Jiangling Society, American Federation, Europa Alliance, Ross Country, Dongying, Zhu Country… Precisely because Su Zhou's fan group spanned the world, if there were spies mixed in, then there would definitely be spies from all over the world.

"Doesn't it sound like most of my fan group administrators are spies, official forces, and members of mysterious organizations with ulterior motives?"

Feeling this, Su Zhou couldn't help but mutter to himself.

But such a sigh seemed quite ignorant.

After all, the world is vast, and there is nothing that is not strange. There have even been ancient and modern wonders where the entire intelligence department of a large organization was composed of spies from another organization's intelligence department, and there have also been amazing anecdotes where a mysterious organization was basically full of undercover members from various countries around the world, and it has not been destroyed for many years.

Having said that, Su Zhou didn't feel that Crocell was lying. He narrowed his eyes and stared at Crocell, who was making a standard surrender posture.

Then, he activated the Evil Devouring Demon Lord Divine Power and began to examine the other party.

The Serpent Attachment Technique is, in essence, splitting off a part of one's own soul and then attaching it to a body. If that body has self-will, then the Serpent Attachment Technique can share the senses. But if it is a comatose person, or a clone or artificial human without will, the Serpent Attachment Technique can control that body like remote control.

Since there is a soul, then it can be observed for curses, just like how Su Zhou could see the strangeness on the Lianzhu Association's sleeper agents in the Kunlun Secret Realm. Now, he can also determine the amount of curses on Crocell through his divine power.

And the result was quite subtle.

"How strange, you are covered in evil thoughts, and you are a bad person, that is undoubtedly certain. But there are not many overly strong curses on your body… Have you not killed anyone?"

"This concentration is like that of a capitalist boss who makes employees work overtime without overtime pay and often takes up holidays… How strange."

Grabbing Crocell's instant noodle-like hair and pulling his head up, Su Zhou rudely looked directly into the other party's eyes, directly staring at the other party's soul structure.

Then, he put down his hand, thoughtfully: "The texture of this hair is like a small snake with scales… The soul is also correct, you are indeed a high-level member of the Lianzhu Association, and still a cultivator of the Gorgon-Quetzalcoatl lineages, and there was no falsehood in what you said just now."

"But a high-level member of a mysterious organization doesn't kill people? This is really strange." This was his evaluation.

"Killing is just a means to achieve a goal. Killing randomly only represents a lack of means and weak ability."

Crocell had no dissatisfaction with Su Zhou's rude actions. He smiled and said quite 'honestly': "Moreover, if the existence of a mysterious organization is only for killing people, then it is not at all 'CooL'—the reason why I chose the Lianzhu Association instead of participating in the Jiangling Society was because of this."

"Moreover, the action in Shan State basically gathered almost all the Lianzhu Association members who were enthusiastic about sacrificial rituals, and the result, I think Mr. Su Zhou is the clearest about… They are all dead."

"So the current Lianzhu Association is not only greatly weakened in strength, but even the aggressive offensiveness and extremism of the past have disappeared, and has even gradually become a kind of underground economic cooperation organization, which can be seen from the fact that spiritual energy has been revived for two years, and we have not made any large-scale actions."