Even without the Dragon King's input, Dyon's Presence was too strong to be fooled by illusions for too long. But, he continued to act as though he was in a daze, taking advantage of the moment to rake the bodies of the twin sister nuns in front of him.
Dyon understood the tricks of The Cathedral rather quickly. Because of the ban on soul cultivation, and the capture or crippling of those with soul talent, something like a bewitching art was easy to use on the entire population.
Suddenly, the unnatural smiles and overly smiley personalities made perfect sense. Only the most noble families could escape such a fate.
As for the commoners who lived elsewhere on Planet Cathedral, they escaped as well. But, if they ever came to Cathedral City, and had the soul talent to ignore this bewitching, they would be exposed almost immediately. As long as someone acted out of expectations, there were only two explanations: the first was that they had a treasure capable of blocking illusions, while the second is that they were talented enough to break free of the illusion themselves!
Dyon understood many things at this moment.
Those with outstanding soul talent would cause abnormal signs at their birth. The Cathedral would monitor these signs and immediately take away the babies that caused them. On the other side of the equation, there were those with soul talent, but not talented enough to cause these abnormal signs at birth. These "stragglers", such as the young girl who was taken away during the Soul Rending Peak assessments, would be taken away the moment they entered Cathedral City because they wouldn't conform to the cultural norms forced by the church.
The only members of this latter group that could escape were children from noble families. Not only would those families have powerful enough means to hide the abnormal signs at the birth of their children, they would also be exempt from having to act the same way the commoners of Cathedral City did…
'This is a million times worse than what Orwell thought it would be…'
The commoners on the outside of Cathedral City were constantly dreaming of one day entering the greatest city ever, in their eyes, all while they lived in terrible conditions. At the same time, the commoner of Cathedral City were trapped themselves, living as slaves and not even knowing it.
The worst part was that the 98th quadrant had the perfect cover. No one wanted to visit them because there was no benefit in doing so. The only people who did visit them were those who knew they secrets already. And, even if others did come to this City, if their Presence and Perception weren't as powerful as Dyon, they wouldn't have even realized that the citizens were acting oddly!
It was no wonder why Zabia didn't want to tell him any of this. The Jafari family must have gotten sick and tired of acting as pillars for such a corrupt system and paid a heavy price for it, not even daring to tell the truth to the rest of the world lest the rest of their family be wiped out by the strong powers that backed Soul Market.
Despite how he was feeling, Dyon buried it deep, looking at the two beauties before him, but only seeing them as conniving snakes.
"I wonder if you sisters could give me a tour? It's been too long since I've come to The Cathedral, I would like to pay my respects."
Dyon silently followed behind the two beautiful nuns, not trying to hide the fact he was eyeing their swaying hips from beginning to end. There was just something about long and loose robes falling over the epitome of the female figure that was even more alluring to the eye than a scantily clad one.
What was odd to Dyon, though, was that these nuns were quite flirtatious. They didn't have the air of conservatism Dyon thought they would have. It was especially weird considering that they were supposed to be the template of purity, yet the movements of their bodies screamed seduction.
Dyon's blood roared, almost screaming in his head to teach these two a lessen for tempting a tiger with raw meat, however, there was nothing he could do.
"Big brother," The voice of the younger twin sister called out, capable of making the bones of males and females alike melt. "This is our hall of worship. We gather here at dusk everyday to pay our respects to our ancestors."
'This little vixen.' Dyon slightly clenched his jaw. 'So seamlessly going from calling me young master to big brother, what exactly are they trying to do?'
The more time Dyon spent with these two sisters, the more confused he became. What was their purpose in seducing him? Could it be that The Cathedral wanted to dip their hands into the pie that was Soul Rending Peak?
It did make sense. After all, Soul Rending Peak couldn't arbitrarily change their rules for fear of losing the protection their ancestors worked for. So, it would be better to control those with power under Soul Rending Peak than to directly control Soul Rending Peak itself…
"This here is a glass work that a celestial adept in the intent of craftsmanship created. Legend has it that she was only a step away from stepping into the world of daos, but she unfortunately passed away before she could do so.
"Despite this, we still worship her as our Den Mother. She truly laid the foundation for what our nunnery has become today."
Dyon followed and silently took note of a few things. Hearing about this intent of craftsmanship, he was intrigued.
According to his master's memories, there were many wills and intents not related to combat. For example, when Dyon first entered Focus Academy, he made use of these very wills to speed read. This, itself, showed that wills weren't only created for the sake of growing stronger physically, but could also be incorporated into the mental aspects of cultivation. The kind of will that would be a part of growing a strong mentality that would greatly help with you dao heart.
Often times, martial warriors would delve into the arts of painting and writing, things like calligraphy and entertainment, all for the sake of calming their spirit and strengthening their dao.
Craftsmanship was among these 'Mentality Daos'.
Interestingly enough, The 25th White Mother's memories also contained a theory that posited the possibility of using mentality daos to cultivate instead of following the conventional path, the devil path, or paths like them that may have been lost to time.
There were legends of existences that were mortal, but still managed to live for tens of thousands of years before breaking through and transcending.
Of course, these were just legends. The idea of someone, completely mortal, leaping over levels of cultivaiton even the most talented of geniuses found difficult to pass through, and directly transcending seemed ridiculous. But, that didn't stop Dyon's master from spending a lot of time studying it as she found these stories quite cathertic comapred to the true brutality of the martial world.
'What do you think Old Lizard, do those people really exist on the transcendent plane? Do they exist?'
There was a long pause between Dyon's question and the Dragon King's answer before the ancient voice took a deep breath.
'The simple answer is that I don't know.'
'And the complicated answer?'
'… It's not completely outside the realm of possibility. I've found evidence of three such individuals, but each and every one of them disappeared without a trace. It's impossible to tell whether I was seeing what I wanted to see, or if these individuals truly existed.'
Dyon nodded. He could understand why the Dragon King and any transcendent would be eager to find these 'mortals'. The transcendent plane, more than any other cultivation level before it, heavily relied on one's mentality. Everything from your life span to your power all relied on it. Understanding this, of course a transcendent would want to exchange pointers with such an individual. Maybe only these geniuses had the key to everything.
After this, the twin nuns introduced Dyon to tens of other ancestors they worshipped. It seemed that The Cathedral didn't have 'a God', per se. But, rather, they had a collection of individuals who once lived that were lauded and respected enough to land in their hall of worship.
In this way, The Cathedral didn't peddle a religion, but rather showed a path to enlightenment that conformed to 'The Way' these legendary ancestors lived their lives to reach the level of cultivation that they did. Because of a promise of growing stronger, the general population and even the elites began to buy into the teachings of The Cathedral, believing that they were all left behind by these ancestors.
Using this, The Cathedral was able to enforce a lot of rules that ranged from innocent things like 'amiability with one's neighbors' all the way and up to the banning of soul cultivation.
"Big brother, your voice is so deep and rich, is that really your real voice?" The younger twin sister asked.
Dyon's eyes flashed with realization. 'They probably wanted to make sure I had fallen into their spell before they made inquiries about me. It obviously wasn't everyday that a core disciple came here, but they want to be clear on my identity before they try to rope me in completely.'
"Of course this is my real voice, how could I dare to fool you two beautiful sisters? I would be angering the heavens if I did something like that."
Hearing Dyon's response, the two sisters smiled sweetly.
