With the Demon King's blood purified, Duanmu Huai's consolidation of this world finally reached its end.
A twisted, evil, despicable, shameless world created by a perverted psychic being had finally returned to the right track. This was not an ending, but a brand-new beginning.
The Demon Realm was completely eradicated. Most demons were slaughtered, with only a small number hiding away. But without the invincible barrier and the Demon King's blood, they could no longer stir up any real trouble.
After that, naturally, came the grand conference to divide the spoils.
Herman chose a stretch of flat, fertile farmland along their border and was now gathering manpower to develop it.
Zeth, relatively stable in comparison, selected the outer Demon territories connected to their borderlands. The region was rich in various minerals—perfect for national reconstruction.
Leazas, meanwhile, chose an enclave between the borders of Zeth and Herman. It had to be said that Lia's move truly gave both nations a headache—but they had no way to refuse.
In addition, Guleya and her dragonkin were granted a piece of land to establish a city of their own. Anne was already rubbing her hands together excitedly, declaring that she would help. She had originally planned to build a modern city for practice, and now that Guleya needed one built, Anne naturally wouldn't let such a good opportunity slip by.
As for Hornet, Duanmu Huai reassigned her a territory to serve as an autonomous domain for demons and female monsters.
By the way, during the process of reclaiming familiars, Hornet and Howzer successfully formed familiar contracts without issue. Satra, however, absolutely refused to succeed no matter what. In the end, Duanmu Huai had no choice but to give her a round of stick-based education before Satra finally submitted.
Beyond that, Duanmu Huai also met the last remaining demon lord, Silky. Her background was rather unexpected—she had once been one of the human heroes who challenged Demon King Geis. Defeated by Geis, she nonetheless impressed him. Geis wanted her as a subordinate, and Silky's condition was that the human ranches be shut down and the humans imprisoned there be freed. Geis agreed, and Silky was transformed into a demon lord.
In truth, she had always been a pacifist and a member of Hornet's faction. So when the Demon Realm was invaded by humanity, while other demon lords rushed to resist, Silky simply ran off and laid low. Only after the Demon Realm had been completely occupied by humans did she reappear before Duanmu Huai to surrender.
Duanmu Huai held respect for this former human hero. He gave her two choices—either become his familiar and continue living as a demon lord, or have her demon blood purified and return to being human.
After much deliberation, Silky chose the latter. Once restored to humanity, she returned to the human world and began her second life.
As for the Demon King couple—Miki Rance and Ogawa Kentaro—they continued their journey. Only this time, their goal was no longer to suppress the Demon King's blood, but to find a way back to their own world…
On the official level, after eliminating the Demon Realm's forces, Duanmu Huai convened another grand conference involving all factions across the continent.
At the meeting, he proposed forming a continent-wide organization centered around the Inquisition.
Basically, it wasn't much different from the United Nations.
The difference was that, unlike the UN, once the Inquisition discovered a problem, it could intervene in another nation's internal affairs. It wouldn't sit back because of so-called sovereignty or independence.
Besides Leazas, Zeth, Herman, and the Free Cities Alliance, the Karas' tribal chief and Hornet—representing the demons—also attended the meeting.
After all, this conference would determine the continent's order for the next several centuries. Even though the Inquisition clearly upheld human supremacy, now that they had been classified as demi-humans, they still had to fight for their peoples' interests.
Duanmu Huai didn't concern himself with these matters. The Inquisition's rules were already clear and required no discussion. The rest were internal issues for each nation.
Even Anne and Guleya participated—after all, they were princesses. Though it wasn't obvious on the surface, they each had their own methods when it came to politics.
From this point on, the world's affairs no longer required Duanmu Huai's attention. He returned to the mothership and finally began to enjoy some rare rest.
"Phew… this feels great."
Lying on the bed, scratching his belly, Duanmu Huai yawned.
That damn white whale had truly wasted quite a bit of his time. But it had been important—especially since the whale's goal had been to revel in humanity's suffering and destruction. Fortunately, the Chaos Gods weren't powerful enough yet. Otherwise, they would have noticed long ago.
Eliminating a potential threat in advance wasn't a loss.
Of course, there were gains as well. Sezer and Howzer, along with their Angel Knights, had all joined the Inquisition. At long last, the aesthetic of Duanmu Huai's Inquisition had been pulled back toward something more respectable. Especially now—seeing angels flapping their wings and flying through cathedral corridors…
Well.
Visually speaking, it was quite convincing.
Of course, this led to an unintentionally hilarious misunderstanding.
After bringing the Angel Knights aboard, they were naturally livestreamed by the ever-idle Zhen Jiling. What Duanmu Huai hadn't expected was that the broadcast would instantly explode across the Stellar Alliance's network. Followers of Western religions were particularly stunned, shouting that God had manifested.
For a time, religious factions within the Stellar Alliance became restless. Many theologians and xenologists even began researching the "origin of God." In truth, theories that God was an alien had existed before—just dismissed as nonsense.
But now, with the Inquisition, cathedrals, and angels all appearing together, that once-absurd theory suddenly seemed far more credible.
After all, during this period, the Inquisition's reputation had gradually spread through the Stellar Federation. And since the Federation intended to reclaim the legitimacy of the Human Empire, it hadn't hesitated to publicize information about the Inquisition.
Well… how to put it.
Duanmu Huai understood Li Longcheng's thinking. It was like Liu Bei in the Three Kingdoms era—just a sandal seller—claiming descent from the King of Zhongshan. Whether true or not, raise the banner first.
To Chinese people, this logic was easy to understand. There were countless similar examples.
Like the fox shouting, "Great Chu shall rise, Chen Sheng shall be king."
Or, "When the one-eyed stone man appears, the world will rebel."
Or the well-known "Overthrow Qing, restore Ming."
Or the most famous of all—"Mandated by Heaven, long live and prosper."
In the Stellar Alliance's narrative, Duanmu Huai's Inquisition occupied precisely this role.
The Federation originated from the Human Empire. The Inquisition was the Empire's highest authority. Now that the Inquisition cooperated with the Federation, it meant the Federation inherited the Empire's legitimacy!
And as the legitimate heir, this wasn't expansion or conquest—it was reclaiming lost territory! Destiny ordained! What do you mean yours and mine? These lands originally belonged to our ancestors! What's wrong with taking back ancestral land? If we don't reclaim it, how can we face our forebears? How can we face the Emperor?
See?
Perfect logic.
Because of this, the Stellar Federation now had at least some understanding of the Inquisition.
Which in turn sparked even more wild speculation among scholars.
For example… what if God had actually been a member of the Inquisition? And those angels clearly looked like Inquisition employees! Did God's existence mean that members of the Inquisition had once aided the Stellar Alliance in ancient times?
Naturally, Duanmu Huai treated these theories as jokes.
Still, from another perspective, it eased many people's doubts and wariness toward the Inquisition. In that sense, it wasn't a bad outcome.
Knock knock knock.
As Duanmu Huai dozed idly, a knock sounded at the door. He sat up and adjusted his clothes.
"Come in."
The hatch opened, and a very distinctive girl with curled ringlet hair at the sides stepped in.
"Lumiel? Something wrong?"
Duanmu Huai wasn't surprised. She was an electronic warfare expert he had recruited from another star system. Because of her specialization, Lumiel usually stayed aboard the ship rather than fighting on the ground—but that didn't mean she was idle.
One of the tasks Duanmu Huai had given her was to monitor classified networks within the Stellar Federation and the Citadel Council. If she discovered any signs resembling Chaos infiltration, she was to report immediately.
Lumiel didn't fully understand the threat—Duanmu Huai hadn't explained it clearly—but he had provided a list. If anything similar appeared, she was to notify him.
Now that she had come personally…
Were those bastards really that impatient?
"Yes, Inquisitor. I've found some issues."
Lumiel opened her terminal. Several intelligence reports appeared before him.
Some concerned alien doomsday cults spreading end-of-the-world rhetoric within the Citadel Council. Duanmu Huai skimmed past those. Every race had hundreds of such idiots. Of course, if they started preaching the Greater Good, he'd grab his thunder hammer immediately.
No one would stop him.
Next were strange diseases on certain colonies. Common enough—different ecosystems, different bacteria. Interstellar homesickness, basically. For now, all were under control.
But the final report caught his attention.
In short, Citadel scientists had measured a certain particle—or something—and found it didn't conform to established scientific laws. They were currently debating whether it was an instrumentation issue or a flaw in theory.
"…Hmm."
Duanmu Huai frowned.
He wasn't a scientist, but this reminded him of a forum discussion from before he transmigrated.
Back then, players debated why humanity's technology declined so sharply after the Dark Age, never returning to the Golden Age's peak. Some argued that relics still existed—why not reverse-engineer them? Like solving a math problem when you already had the answer.
Why were Imperial scientists so incompetent?
How exactly did the Deceitful One interfere with research?
One forum veteran—suspected to have a scientific background—offered a novel analogy.
How does a two-dimensional being perceive a three-dimensional world?
Imagine the 2D world as a sheet of paper. Place a sphere upon it. The contact area is the only part the 2D being can perceive.
But that's like blind men touching an elephant. They'd never grasp the whole.
Now imagine the sphere is removed—or another sphere added.
The entire scientific framework of that 2D world collapses.
In reality, everyone knows 1+1=2. But what if, in a higher dimension, 1+1≠2?
If one step in a calculation is wrong, everything afterward is wrong.
According to that veteran, the Deceitful One manipulated science by exploiting this principle. The Warp was a higher dimension; the Chaos Gods were higher-dimensional beings. Altering lower-dimensional observations and calculations was trivial for them.
Without accurate data, even the greatest scientists couldn't derive correct conclusions.
Perhaps that's why the Mechanicus were so mystic—fighting magic with magic. If the Deceitful One shrouded reality in fog, they invoked the Machine God's faith to dispel it.
Strangely logical.
Duanmu Huai didn't understand science, but he grasped the basic idea: if something fundamentally contradicted established research foundations, it might be the Deceitful One's interference.
Of course, only maybe.
He couldn't even understand the particle terminology in the report. Thankfully, the journalist had simplified it. In essence, the discovery overturned XX Hypothesis and OO Theorem in physics. If confirmed, it could trigger a massive upheaval in scientific research.
It reminded him of sensational headlines he'd seen before transmigrating.
"Shocking! Freshman student overturns physics, invents perpetual motion machine!"
Was this real?
"Do you understand it?" he asked Lumiel.
She shook her head.
Her expertise was electronic networks—not this.
"Keep watching it. We'll wait for a conclusion."
He couldn't judge such foundational science. Better to monitor and decide later.
After dealing with this minor issue, Duanmu Huai opened the system interface, intending to check when the next crossover event would begin.
However—
When he saw the name of the event displayed in the system, he nearly spat out the water in his mouth.
"Damn it—why this one?!"
(End of Chapter)