Chapter 1,332.

Emily had to admit, it was astonishing how quickly and effortlessly things could spiral out of control. Before she knew what hit her, she found herself clad in an embarrassingly cliché hooded robe with thousands of other compatriots. Emily had nothing against the witchy aesthetic, but she had undeniably taken things too far by participating in a ritual meant to summon an ancient deity.

To be fair, there were some signs things were moving in the wrong direction.

It all started with a gamble—picking a memory lantern at the last minute, solely based on its vague connection to the Radiant Court. After figuring out the ins and outs of the trial, Emily was disappointed to realize she’d gained an identity not much better than her own. Glothine Peyna was a trainee of the Order of Dawn, still ways from becoming a full-fledged Templar.

Sure, Glothine’s potential was enough to garner the attention of a mysterious Cardinal. Glothine should have known a man like that spelled trouble. The Cardinal led a covert mission, one not suitable for anointed Templars filled with Imperial Faith. The order had discovered a cult called the Children of the True Sun.

The Cardinal needed infiltrators talented enough that they could rise through their ranks and gather information on its elusive deity. The cult would reemerge if they didn’t deal with the root of the problem. Glothine jumped at the opportunity despite its evident dangers. The reward was too good to pass up. Exposing the diety’s true identity would directly qualify Glothine to take the oath. Not only that, she’d become a Templar stationed in the Radiant Court among the other handpicked elites of the Faith.

Emily inwardly scoffed. The memory lantern began during the cult’s initial screening. That silly girl hadn’t even made it past the first hurdle before being exposed. Emily had graciously taken over and solved the issue through some good old Atwood Diplomacy. Dead cultists wouldn’t reveal any secrets. Emily successfully became a Daughter of the True Sun by taking the proctor’s token from her cold, dead fingers.

It was all fun and games in the beginning. Emily’s status among the other ‘children’ increased with every memory domain she visited while her rewards went from mouthwatering to mindboggling.

‘That’s how they get you, isn’t it? They show you a good time, then you’re trapped before you know it.’

The party was over. The cult did as cults do, and Emily had no way out. She was literally stuck inside a volcano, forced to chant scriptures with her fervent siblings. Emily had no way to contact the Order of Dawn. If she did, why would they believe her? At least a million years had passed between Glothine’s name being struck from the Templar records and today. How could a Middle Hegemon possibly have survived that long?

Besides, Emily’s track record made her look more like a turncoat than an infiltrator. This was her fourth connected memory domain, and she’d done nothing to turn the situation around. If anything, she’d been instrumental in setting things up for this stupid ritual—something she only realized a few hours ago.

Emily glared at the throbbing sun floating in the center of the ritualistic circle, wishing she could test its structural integrity with one of her toys. The thousands of D-grade cultists would probably take offense, as would the four leaders standing around the altar placed beneath the sun. All of them Monarchs, with the Emissary of the True Sun being especially scary.

There was nothing to do but stay the course. It wasn’t like she could do anything to the primordial aura stirring in the depths of the sun. Something surpassing Emily’s understanding had appeared in its depths, something ancient and powerful. A presence that was already twisting the Dao and obscuring the Heavens.

Emily shook her head. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as she thought. Her seal had clearly encouraged her greed-induced treason. If the Radiant Court didn’t want her to take out the cult’s competition while embezzling their treasuries, it shouldn’t have buffed her seal after every misadventure. So what if she summoned an evil god? It was just a memory, and why would the god kill its devout followers? It might even have some good stuff—

A pained scream crushed Emily’s fantasy. It came from a cultist on the magic circle’s opposite end. Dark smoke poured out his hood and sleeves. Emily could feel the intense heat gathering within the twitching cultist. He was unable to hold it in, spontaneously combusting into a fiery pillar matching the True Sun aura. Sealed in the center of the flame, there was a stubborn ball of Imperial Faith.

“There are nonbelievers in our ranks, rats with ill intent,” one of the main cultists said as another cultist screamed. “The True Sun’s flames shall cleanse them of their confusion.”

‘I just had to jinx it, didn’t I?’ Emily inwardly groaned when a third infiltrator was exposed.

It was just the beginning. Fiery pillars erupted one after another, each adding to the dormant volcano’s sweltering heat. Worse, the Sun God’s aura deepened with every sacrifice. The Children of the True Sun had clearly allowed itself to be infiltrated, needing the Templars for the ritual. Emily endlessly complained in her mind. What’s wrong with these brain-dead cultists?

Life in the Limitless Empire was obviously pretty good, so why go around messing with ancient gods? Are you that bored? And do you think you’ll have a good end after killing so many imperials? Speaking of, how can these Templars be so unreliable? What kind of idiot is running things at the Order of Dawn? Why send dozens of infiltrators? You’re obviously going to get exposed.

More than anything, Emily needed to figure out just how the True Sun cult was able to identify the infiltrators. Did they already have a black book of names? If not, there had to be a problem with the spell meant to hide their Imperial Faith. The deaths started shortly after that vast aura appeared within the sun.

Emily had never bothered using that magic, mostly because Glothine’s fractured memories didn’t contain the whole thing—probably the reason for her premature exposure. It hadn’t caused any problems thus far. Emily had figured it wasn’t a problem, considering she had no faith to speak of. Every conflagration chipped away at her certainty.

What was she supposed to do? There was no escape. The volcano was sealed with incredible arrays, and she’d surely become the next pillar if she left her post. She furtively looked around, desperately praying for someone else to make the first move. It would trigger a domino effect, perhaps creating an opportunity to escape.

‘Muscle-brained lunatics! Why are none of you running? Dozens have died already! If you’re going to sacrifice yourselves, do it in a way that’s of help to your colleagues!’

The sacrifices became a clock counting toward her final departure. Emily wasn’t one to give up without a fight. Since everyone else was unwilling to make a move, she would have to get the ball rolling herself. There was a chance of survival so long as she could figure out a way to survive the initial attention.

The opportunity Emily had been waiting for arrived before she could come up with a plan that didn’t guarantee painful and immediate death. The floating sun flickered, prompting the sealed Imperial Faith inside the fiery pillars to erupt with incredible intensity. Golden flames had ignited from within, quickly overpowering and consuming the True Sun’s fire.

The pillars collapsed, turning into miniature suns radiating rays of unbending conviction. They surrounded the True Sun like a pack of hungry lions eying a wounded elephant. The Sun God didn’t like what it saw, and its vast presence began pulling back. The sacrificial suns wouldn’t let their prey escape, and they released dozens of radiant chains.

Silver harpoons with cruel barbs were fastened at the tip of the chains. They dug into the fading sun and forcibly prolonged its stay. Four of the chains targeted the leaders presiding over the ritual. Two stabbed into the Emissary of the True Sun with such speed he failed to react. They didn’t punch a hole in his chest as Emily had hoped. The chains were spiritual in nature, unable to do anything beyond sealing its targets.

The other two chains targeted one vice leader each, leaving the last one unencumbered. The reversal happened in the blink of an eye, and it was only the beginning. The third vice-master’s hand gained a stony coating with such a brutal aura that Emily’s thoughts were briefly scattered. The vice-leader had already stabbed his hand through his colleague’s head when Emily came to, confirming his status as another infiltrator.

He didn’t get the chance to finish off the others. While chained down, they retained part of their cultivation. The spy had his hands full stopping the Emissary and his helper from saving their god. They fought in a separate space so that their surroundings weren’t impacted. The traitor didn’t want to damage the chains, while the cultists desperately kept the altar safe.

“Protect the True Sun! Break the chains!” the Emissary roared, startling the shocked cultists awake.

The true believers acted without hesitation, targeting the golden suns scattered across the volcano. Some had other ideas. Over two hundred cultists fearlessly intercepted the believers despite being outnumbered three to one. Emily gaped in shock when she realized a full quarter of the cultists had been spies.

A quarter of the hooded cultists took a cautious approach by retreating from the mayhem. They were no doubt opportunists like Emily, who’d joined the cult for its surprisingly ample resources. The true believers didn’t bother with this group. The volcano’s arrays were still intact, so there’d be time to deal with them later.

Awash with relief, Emily tabled any plans of making a heroic stance. Instead, she joined the neutral group, carefully inching away from her spot in the inner circle. The Order of Dawn had made its move, so the outer barrier should be knocked down soon enough.

Or would it?

Emily’s steps slowed until she came to a standstill. Memory domains only appeared where things had gone tits up, and the situation certainly didn’t look optimistic. The Templars mounted a valiant resistance, but the followers of the sun had numbers on their side. Templars were dying left and right. The first two dozen turned into sacrificial suns, at which point the True Sun roared. From thereon out, no new suns emerged.

Worse, The True Sun had imparted its followers with some of its power, making them fight without care for their lives. Even some of the opportunists entered the fray when they saw how badly the Templars were faltering. With fewer and few defenders, the cultists started attacking the chains. Directly destroying them was impossible, but each attack exhausted a small amount of its radiance. It wouldn’t take long before the first ones would snap.

The C-grade spy was powerless to turn things around. The emissary was the biggest beneficiary of the True Sun’s blessing, and the infiltrator was about to be overwhelmed. Just as Emily hesitated about what to do, she felt a vibration from the Cosmos Sack she used to keep her local products. It came from a simple memento that Emily vaguely recalled being Glothine’s.

Emily didn’t need to see its glowing Imperial Faith to realize there was something off about it. She’d completely glossed over its existence since acquiring her identity, yet always kept it on her person. Emily’s back was slick with sweat, suddenly realizing how the True Sun had found the infiltrators.

Emily wasn’t given the chance to curse her callous bosses before receiving an order that allowed no questioning.

‘Ignite the flame!’’

Emily’s gaze was involuntarily drawn to the altar, realizing that a small bundle of golden sticks had replaced the ornamental relics. She wasn’t the only one to have received the message. Eight Templars immediately shot toward the altar. Two of them even sacrificed their lives to open a path for a third. It was all for naught. Only someone like Zac could cut a path through a swarm of cultivators at the same grade.

And yet, that was exactly what she had to do. The chains were snapping, the spies were dying, and there were no signs of reinforcements. Whatever happened next would be too little, too late. She needed to put her finger on the scale.

“God damn it!” Emily spat as a stream of axes poured out of her sleeves.

The flying tomahawks kicked up a literal storm that obscured even Dao-empowered sight, but it couldn’t hide the massive totem pole that rose in its center. Using the memento as a medium, Emily threw two buffing axes into the pillar. The effect was immediate.

There were still a hundred Templars left standing, all of them showcasing valor and strength above the norm. Even they had been struggling against the relentless tide of cultists, and most had used their hidden cards to last until now. A pulse holding the vigor of spring and the fierceness of the summer sun swept through the volcano, imbuing the faltering warriors with newfound strength.

Dozens of cultists died in a single breath from the Templars’ sudden burst of strength. A few more were cut apart from finding themselves within range of [Dance of the Five Seasons]. The axe array reaped six lives before they realized what hit them. To their credit, the cultists displayed a semblance of cohesion even in their rage-addled state. They worked together to create a perimeter before moving toward the buffing pillar. Emily couldn’t have that.

“Suzy!”

A massive salamander came barreling through the dense storm, its incorporeal form allowing the flying axes to pass right through. It crashed into the most organized group of cultists nearby, completely disrupting their formation. The cultists fought back against the beast and Emily’s assault by unleashing swathes of the True Sun’s wrath.

The flames held a mysterious power that damaged the flying axes with shocking ease. Emily had to give it to the Templars; it was a miracle that so many were still standing. The flames left Suzy cautious, unwilling to make direct contact. Instead, her burning form darkened before turning translucent, like she had fused with the obscuring storm. From radiating the scorching heat of summer, the salamander creature became an avatar of fall’s decay.

Suzy opened her maw wide, releasing a suffocating gale that suffocated the flames, and two cultists crumpled to the ground. Another cultist died to a tomahawk flashing by in the gale’s shadow, and a brutal stomp from the huge salamander turned the rest of them into a paste. A massive hand of flames picked that moment to target the totem pole from the storm’s opposite end.

It was the combined efforts of eight Early Hegemons who hoped to overcome quality with quantity. The ambush wasn’t fast enough to stump the ferocious salamander. Suzy turned into a gust of wind, appearing before the buffing pillar. The salamander was acting without Emily providing guidance or Cosmic Energy—something only possible now that she’d transcended from being a skill.

Emily had gained a lot from her dealings with the Children of the True Sun, and the [Ardent Sunseed] was undoubtedly the best. The powerful Natural Treasure had imparted Suzy with a true spirit, turning her into a summoned companion live Verun. [Apostle of Autumn] was already one of Emily’s deadliest skills, and becoming a true spirit had made Suzy even stronger.

The salamander even adapted to embody Emily’s seasonal Dao, not just the heat of summer’s end. Suzy’s unbelievable transformation wasn’t even the best part. The sunseed had created a spiritual space in the heart of Emily’s Cosmic Core, and both Suzy and her home would be nurtured when Emily cultivated.

The addition had increased the amount of energy needed for each level, but the benefits more than made up for it. The sunseed would provide significant assistance when assaulting Monarchy. Its space would fuse with her Inner World, stabilizing it while expanding its borders. It was also this treasure that made Emily fall to temptation and enter the volcano's memory domain for "one final score."

Suzy successfully stopped the ambush, but it was only a delay of the inevitable. The zealots had realized totem pole was a major factor behind the Templars’ sudden burst of strength. More and more shifted their attention from the sacrificial suns to dealing with the new threat. Suzy could stall a handful of cultists, but a whole army of them was asking too much of her newborn pet.

It wasn’t like protecting the totem pole with her life would change anything. Emily had always known her buffs wouldn’t be enough to turn the situation around. What mattered was how she used the attention it garnered. The salamander’s rampage had taken focus from the six massive cannons silently appearing within the storm. Even Emily’s modified [Godslayer Cannons] needed a moment to arm.

That moment had passed, which meant it was time to create a few suns of her own.