Mars Unveils the Past: The Genesis of All

Mars boisterously fetched a cushion and sat down cross-legged. Gesturing wildly, he began, "That year, the Holy Alliance finally triumphed over the Fiendkind, but those gods were practically wiped out! Counting the lucky survivors and the maimed, there were only thirty to forty left! Damn it all, over a thousand gods, and only thirty or forty broken, limb-deficient ones remained! Even Divine Emperor Prince, having overdrawn too much life force in the final battle, was bedridden, unable to rise. Can you even fathom the brutality of the Godslayer War?"

Mars demanded loudly, then chuckled conspiratorially, "But with victory came the time for rewards! So the surviving gods and their descendants began to deliberate on how to re-divide the territories..."

Du Chen listened with keen interest. He had truly found the right person in Mars!

"Divide they did, but then the problems arose... Everyone wanted a larger territory, and no one wanted deserts or Gobi as their fiefs, right!? Damn it all, the spoils weren't divided fairly, and the gods, already missing limbs, started fighting among themselves! It was then that the first Pontiff, the ancestor of Boss Mars, became the representative of the gods after Divine Emperor Prince's demise. He wished to halt the gods' strife, but he lacked the power!"

Mars wiped his mouth. "Don't think Boss's ancestor was useless; it depends on who you compare him to. No matter how powerful he was, he couldn't match the gods who had just returned from the battlefield, wouldn't you agree!?"

"As a result, the Three Continents plunged into utter chaos for over a century. And amidst this great turmoil, your Lanning ancestors, that old rascal Bovin, stumbled upon some incredible fortune. He started with just a suit of black iron armor, annihilated four gods, and established the Lanning Empire... Finally, one hundred and thirty years after the Godslayer War, a woman appeared. That woman was utterly ruthless, wickedly venomous! In a single move, she slew nine gods who were still alive at the time, quelling the chaos..."

Du Chen's attention sharpened instantly!

"As for who this old hag was..." Mars abruptly closed his eyes and mouth, stood up, and walked to the nine altars on the second level. He pointed to the empty one in the very center. "She is the one recorded in the annals of the Godslayer War, supposedly fallen in battle... the Chief of the Nine Marshals of the Holy Alliance, Grand Marshal of the Firmament War Zone, Divine-Bestowed Imperial Duke, and the Water's Embrace Divine Maiden, Margaret!"

"By her mother's tits!" Du Chen suddenly cursed.

Mars paused, then burst into laughter. "Exactly, by that old hag's mother's tits!"

In truth, Du Chen was indignant on behalf of the Grand Matriarchs. Back then, they had waited a thousand years in the ancient castle precisely because Margaret had vanished without a trace! Now, it seemed Margaret hadn't died, and for a millennium, she hadn't even bothered to rescue the Grand Matriarchs. What a damned scoundrel! The Grand Matriarchs were such good people!

Mars continued, "No one knows why Margaret didn't die, but the Papal Curia knows she established a mysterious organization called 'Water's Embrace Lake' in a secret place, specifically dedicated to cultivating perverted old hags! She also had several factions help her gather young girls, and the Holy Church was one of them... Now do you understand why Boss is a little afraid of those Divine Envoys? They are Margaret's Divine Servants! Both the old and the young are perverse!"

Du Chen nodded in agreement.

Mars stomped his foot. "Damn it all, Boss Pontiff's ancestors had to respectfully bow and call Margaret 'Marshal'! What could our Boss do, you tell me! The earliest Pontiffs didn't dare breathe heavily when facing members of Water's Embrace Lake! Thankfully, over a millennium has passed, and the Papal Curia has figured out Margaret's temperament; only now has our current Boss grown a backbone!"

"Oh? Why did the Papal Curia grow bolder after understanding Margaret's temperament and strength more clearly?" Du Chen asked curiously.

Mars lowered his voice and chuckled, "I, Mars, am a coarse man, but even I know that this time, Boss Pontiff seems to have sold the Divine Envoys to the Dragon God... The Boss dared to do this because he truly understands Margaret. That old hag never treats her Divine Servants as people; if they die, they die! As long as she gets more Divine Servants, it's fine... It's like owning dogs. If you kill someone's pet, pay some compensation, offer an apology, and then give them a better dog, who would still get angry over a dead one!?"

Du Chen scoffed, "Yet the Water's Embrace Divine Servants still regard Margaret as a goddess!"

Mars also pursed his lips. "Later, the Papal Curia gradually discovered several other gods who hadn't died. It wouldn't do to set up spirit tablets for living people, right?" He patted the empty altar. "So this spot remains vacant! In the future, your friend Du Chen will also be placed here. As for which tier he reaches, that depends on his strength!"

...Du Chen's sly gaze quickly swept over the divine statues again, secretly noting the empty positions! He smiled, "Thank you, I now fully understand the origins of the Water's Embrace Divine Envoys. So, what does this have to do with the events of seventeen years ago?"

Mars's tone shifted, and his words quickened. "Azure Heaven Continent, the eastern suburbs of Lion's Roar City in the northern reaches of the Reno Empire, Mount Wanliu! You should be very familiar with this place, shouldn't you?"

"Of course, the birthplace of the Five Peaks of Myriad Streams!"

"Twenty years ago, Margaret of Water's Embrace Lake dispatched two of her strongest disciples to the Three Continents to handle a secret matter. She notified the Papal Curia, the Godslayer Five Families, and other factions with whom she had agreements, to assist these two disciples, but with the strict caveat: 'Do not question why!'"

"Three years before I was born..." Du Chen murmured.

"Precisely. At the time, no one knew why those two female disciples came to the Three Continents. But what happened next was truly fascinating. Those two disciples weren't mere Divine Servants Margaret treated like dogs; they were her true inner-circle disciples! And they weren't like those despicable old hags; on the contrary, they were rather lovely young women..."

Mars smiled suggestively. "Two young women who had never seen a man, arriving on the Azure Heaven Continent, a land reputedly teeming with heroes... What do you think happened!?"

Du Chen was startled. "No way..."

"Exactly! They fell for two men! They disguised themselves and married. One of those men was Roland, still in his prime at the time. The other was Roland's sworn brother, King Alonso's son, Crown Prince Choba of Reno!"

"Choba? Is he my friend Arthur's deceased father?" Du Chen found the story intriguing. "Heroes matching beauties, a Sword Emperor and a Crown Prince—these two pairs certainly seem well-matched!"

"Indeed, but do you remember the rule of Water's Embrace Lake that I told you about?"

"Disciples are forbidden to marry, or else, death?" Du Chen vaguely understood Mars's implication.

Mars slapped his thigh. "Yes, that Margaret woman is truly venomous! First, let's talk about Roland. Do you know why he sealed his sword? Because his wife and children both died by his very own Sword of Resentful Water! Roland himself was beaten half to death by Water's Embrace Holy Radiance at Mount Wanliu. In the end, Zigurd, to save his friend, risked his life, mobilizing five hundred elite Battle Gods from Battle God Academy at all costs to rescue him!"

Du Chen was silent for a moment, then nodded.

No wonder, back on Mount Tianshan, Roland was driven to madness by his own Holy Light... It seemed his Lotus Holy Light and Water's Embrace Holy Radiance must be quite similar!

He whispered, "What about Choba then? Arthur said both his parents died. Could it be... that Lionheart King Alonso couldn't even protect his only biological son!?"

"Bullshit! Roland's wife and child died first, but he still had a good brother, Ben, the Blade of Heaven! Roland, knowing his demise was certain, let Ben, who had come to rescue him, escape amidst the chaos to warn Choba. But when Ben reached the Imperial Capital of the Reno Empire, he discovered Choba was already dead!"

Du Chen was shocked. "Margaret's actions were swift!"

"Bullshit, it wasn't Margaret who killed him at all! It was Alonso himself who personally slew his own son!"

"What did you say!? Arthur's grandfather killed Arthur's father? Does Arthur know?"

"That kid probably doesn't know yet!" Mars sighed as well, what a human tragedy! "Why Alonso killed his own son, the Papal Curia still doesn't know! But the Papal Curia knows that when Ben, the Blade of Heaven, arrived in the Reno Imperial Capital, Choba's wife, pregnant with Arthur, had already been imprisoned in Reno's death row! Ben was a hero, his word as good as gold! He wasn't familiar with Choba, but with Roland's dying wish, he, a lone blade, stormed into Reno's death row, fighting through a myriad of soldiers until his armor shattered, and forcibly rescued Choba's pregnant wife! Later, Alonso himself tracked them down, only finding a few fragments of the Blade of Heaven in the northern suburbs of the Imperial Capital... 'When a sacred artifact shatters, a Battle God dies,' this is a fundamental truth! So everyone thought Ben was dead. Later, when Aliza appeared as a slave, it further convinced Zigurd and Roland that Ben had indeed perished!"

"But in reality? The Papal Curia must know more, right? Also, you've told me so much about things that happened seventeen years ago, but how does it relate to me?" Du Chen asked.

"What's the rush? Would you understand if I held back?" Mars said displeased. "Indeed, the Papal Curia also thought the Blade of Heaven was dead at the time. But later, from the Water's Embrace Divine Envoys, they learned that he actually feared being tracked, so he destroyed half of his Blade of Heaven, then went into hiding with Choba's wife, making his way to Aethelgard Continent, the Lanning Empire, Saint John City..."

"Heh, heh!"

Du Chen gave a wry smile, "At that time, my father, Duke Arges, was on an expedition to McAllen, and I was about to be born!"

"Hey, do you know what happened next? Margaret herself returned to the mortal realm. She captured Ben, the Blade of Heaven, and Choba's wife in the Aristocratic Quarter of Saint John City and brought them back to Water's Embrace Lake. It's said she had them torn apart by five horses... But not long after, the newborn Arthur was returned to the gates of the Reno Imperial Capital, along with a cradle containing proof of his identity. However, Arthur, possessing divine blood, had been reduced to an imbecile and a cripple!"

Mars said gravely, "Ten years ago, a Water's Embrace Divine Envoy incidentally mentioned this to His Holiness the Pontiff. Only then did the Papal Curia learn that Arthur originally possessed a Heaven-Bestowed Hydro-Body, but Margaret used a Secret Technique to seal his talent! She turned him into a battle qi imbecile! Francis, let me tell you one more thing: when Margaret apprehended the Blade of Heaven, the Papal Curia's spy stationed at Saint Sigurd Cain Estate reported... that during that period, Phil went missing. And when she reappeared, she was carrying you, newly born. However, you, too, were a cripple and a battle qi imbecile, exactly like Arthur!"

"Damn it, I understand, I understand everything now!" Du Chen clenched his fist. "When Margaret apprehended the Blade of Heaven and Arthur's mother, somehow our mother and son were implicated. Then, Margaret turned both Arthur and me into cripples—and she used her most powerful Secret Technique! Now, Arthur is still a cripple, but I... I've unsealed Margaret's Secret Technique... No wonder the Water's Embrace Divine Envoys want to capture me!"

Mars nodded. "Hmm, I reckon so too... Arthur had a god as his grandfather. Alonso spent ten years ensuring Arthur was no longer an imbecile, but he still couldn't cultivate battle qi! But you... at fifteen, you forcibly broke Margaret's Secret Technique and even became a Six-Star Battle God! Margaret must surely want to know what could have broken her Secret Technique!"

What could have broken Margaret's Secret Technique? Heh, wrong, terribly wrong! The Francis who was supposed to be a genius was already dead. This poor child never truly awakened from beginning to end... What truly broke Margaret's Secret Technique was the Precious Scroll's transformation of Du Chen! Or rather, it was Master Grape's magic that utterly defeated Margaret's Secret Technique!

Following this, a question formed in Du Chen's mind!

What exactly led Margaret to involve Phil and Francis!?

Mars did not know the answer to this question!

Du Chen clapped Mars on the shoulder. "Thank you again, Mars, the Battle God. Your story was excellent and captivating... Heh heh, if you ever find yourself jobless, how about becoming my Minister of Propaganda in my territory!?"

"Francis, I'm warning you, if you dare poach from Boss, my axe will have words with you!" Mars feigned anger, then chuckled. "Oh right, your Minister of Propaganda position already has a candidate! And you can't refuse! Haha, no matter what, Boss has given you countless Gold Coins, so naturally, someone needs to be by your side to see what Boss's Gold Coins are being used for, wouldn't you agree?"

"I understand, to spy on me, right!" Du Chen waved his hand and started to leave. "Boss Mars, I'm no longer with the Enforcement Temple, but I used to be your subordinate. Just give me a hint, who's going to spy on me?"

"Heh heh, Boss intends to transform Durkes City into a vital stronghold controlling the south of Aethelgard. So my Enforcement Temple is also going all out... deploying my most capable subordinate!"

*Clang!* Du Chen tripped over the threshold!

Mars's most capable subordinate, it couldn't be... Oh heavens!

Just then, Old Five's Divine Sense interrupted Du Chen's thoughts.

"Francis, I have good news and bad news for you... The good news is, Third Sister and Fourth Bro among the four Divine Envoys didn't quite grasp the full situation, but Donna explained it clearly to them, and I understood it as well! And the bad news is, I now understand even better why Flaying always pressured you to find Phil, because if you don't find Phil or your maternal grandfather Byron-Gale before the Water's Embrace Divine Envoys' master discovers you aren't an imbecile! Then you will witness a Godslayer Grand Marshal—who knows how many stars of Battle God she is—leading countless old hags... coming to personally kill you!"