The Witch Hunter System

Chapter 1173: Initiating a Large-Scale Investigation

The deeper Vaan looked into the matter, the more startled he became by the secrets he uncovered from the Origin Energy.

After some time of studying, he realized this Origin Energy wasn’t secretly planted by the Outerworlders. On the contrary, the truth was much worse. The Origin Energy was actually formed by the Earth Law in the subterranean region.

In other words, the governing Earth Law itself had become corrupted, naturally forming destructive, corruptive Origin Energy to infect the surrounding earthen elements, spreading its corruption.

Given the close relationship between the wind and earth elements in the Nine Divine Starwind Realm, it was natural for the Wind Spirits to be affected on a superficial level.

’So that’s how it is. No wonder the Wind Spirits display such an attitude toward Celestite without detectable signs of corruption. Yet, the moment she displayed her royal power, the Wind Spirits broke free from the subtle influence.’

Vaan’s eyes flickered with enlightenment, seemingly grasped the situation.

However, this discovery did not make him feel good. On the contrary, it made him feel terribly grave. With every new discovery, he realized the situation in Chaos was much worse than before.

At first, he thought the Outerworlders had yet to infiltrate Chaos, only to learn later that half of Chaos had already fallen under the control of the Outerworlders.

Now, he found out that even the governing laws of the world were getting corrupted by the Outerworlders.

Furthermore, this was likely a natural occurrence rather than an intentional machination.

After all, Vaan had given the Beyond True Divinity Realm a lot of thought. Beings at that level had already surpassed the heavens and no longer needed to conform to the heavenly way. Instead, the heavenly way had to obey them.

With so many Outerworlders in Chaos, the natural laws would naturally change to accommodate them.

Still, the Lord of Chaos was supposed to wield the ultimate control over Chaos.

As such, for such a situation to be taking place, Vaan feared something had happened to the Lord of Chaos. That, or the Outerworlders were even more powerful than he could have imagined, even wrestling control from the Lord of Chaos.

Regardless of the case, it became clear to Vaan that the overall situation was no longer a stalemate between Chaos and the Outerworlders.

Clearly, Chaos was losing.

’If the corrupted laws were to spread without restraint, the corruption outbreak would completely change the world as we know it...’

Vaan thought gravely.

Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about this. It wasn’t a problem someone at his level could interfere with. He just wasn’t sure whether even True Divinities could handle this kind of problem.

’If the corruption of laws can’t be stopped, there would be nowhere to run... All life will be vulnerable to corruption,’ Vaan frowned.

Whether he wished for it or not, his personal cultivation had to be paused.

Vaan quickly shared his discovery with Sovereign Trueblue and the other True Divinities, and they were instantly shocked and horrified beyond belief.

Before Empyrean Oceanheart could personally arrive to investigate the Nine Divine Starwind Realm, she received this new piece of information and felt equally shocked and horrified beyond belief. Ṟá𐌽𝘰𝐁Ês

No one could have imagined that the world had become so out of their control.

"What are your orders, Empyrean Oceanheart?" Sovereign Trueblue inquired with a grave expression.

"The Earth Law in the subterranean region of realms must be investigated, not just the Nine Divine Star Realm. All earth cultivation realms, in particular, have to be investigated. Just focus on the realms within our domain."

"As for others, I will notify the other Empyreans of the situation. They will know what to do once they understand the gravity of the problem."

"Understood, Empyrean Oceanheart."

It didn’t take long before all True Divinity-level merfolk in the Myriad Sea God Palace were mobilized for the large-scale investigation. Even True Divinity-level merfolk adventuring outside of the Holy Land were urgently recalled for the task.

After all, their territory was simply too vast.

Relying solely on True Divinities, they didn’t have enough manpower to complete the investigation quickly.

However, they have no choice but to rely solely on True Divinities.

Anyone below the True Divinity Realm would only be vulnerable to the corruption. Thus, sending them out to investigate potential sources of corruption was akin to sending them to die.

After all, if they were infected and couldn’t be cured, they could only be killed to prevent further problems.

Moreover, Vaan had yet to prove whether he could treat Corrupted Ones.

Even if he did prove he could, Empyrean Oceanheart would not want to burden him with many patients. He could only treat so many Corrupted Ones at once, exhaustingly so.

Empyrean Oceanheart might not be a Soul Master, but even she was aware that Soul Masters had limited soul power they could use daily, and its exhaustion puts them in a vulnerable state.

"Oceanheart, is this information completely true?!"

The moment the other Empyreans were informed of the situation, they immediately contacted her. Disbelief and Shock couldn’t be hidden in their tones.

Evidently, everyone understood the implications of law corruption.

That was no longer the Myriad Sea God Palace’s personal crisis, but a Chaos-wide calamity. Countless beings would be affected if it couldn’t be stopped or resolved.

"Absolutely! I received the information from the Lord Envoy himself, and even personally made the trip to check the situation. I fear the corruption is not limited to my Nine Divine Starwind Realm’s Earth Law."

"It’s in everyone’s best interest to check the Earth Law of every realm."

"Definitely."

Empyrean Vastheaven and the other Empyreans acknowledged Empyrean Oceanheart’s reasonable suggestion.

Even if they couldn’t fix the corrupted laws, they could flag the affected regions and prohibit access, preventing disciples from being exposed to it and becoming infected by the corruption.

Within moments, the Myriad Sea God Palace experienced an unprecedented level of mobilization from the upper echelons, never before seen in the ages.

Countless True Divinities flew out of the Core Palace to scour the earth of numerous star realms under their domain, shocking many ordinary disciples as they passed by.

To such ordinary disciples, True Divinities were too distant. They only heard about such god-like beings and never had the chance to encounter one. They felt incredibly honored to even catch a glimpse.

"Was that a True Divinity passing by just now?"

"A True Divinity? Are you kidding me? How could such venerable True Divinity possibly visit an ordinary cultivation realm like this? You must be imagining things."

"But the imperial aura of that being was truly astonishing! I don’t think anyone below the True Divinity Realm could possess such an aura!"

"You’re just a Divine Warrior. What would you even know?"

...

"Empyrean Oceanheart, I believe all of the previous Corrupted Ones require a reinvestigation. I noticed their records are lacking some details. We need to determine whether they have been to any rich earth elemental realms or areas prior to corruption," Vaan mentioned.

"This will allow us to figure out whether they were infected by the Corrupted Earth Laws, or if they had been corrupted by other sources."

"At the same time, we should also filter out the disciples who have visited such regions rich in the earthen elements since the discovery of the first Corrupted Ones. This should help us flag all the potentially infected disciples."

"This should be more effective than monitoring disciples who can’t make cultivation progress," Vaan added.

Given the discovery of the Corrupted Earth Law and its underlying implications, there was no longer a need for him to host lectures.

After all, the breakthrough discovery opened up a more effective filtering method.

"You’re right, Sir Vaan. This method will certainly save us a lot of effort in discovering the infected," Empyrean Oceanheart acknowledged.

She immediately informed the other Empyreans and made them aware of this method.

Naturally, the primary focus remained on identifying the sources of corruption and preventing their spread, not on catching the existing infected disciples. After all, if they didn’t plug the hole first, water would just keep leaking.

It didn’t take long before they received news of Corrupted Earth Laws in other realms.

Some realms required True Divinities to explore deeper into the subterranean region than others before the Corrupted Earth Laws could be discovered.

Nevertheless, the number of realms with Corrupted Earth Laws that the True Divinities discovered within a short time was nothing short of alarming. After all, every realm they had visited so far had been a hit.

The severity of the problem was growing with each new discovery.

For years, the upper echelons of the Myriad Sea God Palace had been sensing an unprecedented crisis approaching, yet no one had been able to determine what form it would take.

Yet, after a single breakthrough in their discovery, the mystery of the crisis was rapidly uncovered. With each new discovery, they realized they had only seen a small part of a larger problem.

Now that they have seen a larger part of the problem, everyone realized this crisis had existed for a long time, silently growing beneath their notice until it fell out of their control.

No, even if they had discovered it sooner, they still wouldn’t have been able to do anything.

On the contrary, they would only be able to live on with the knowledge, stressing over the matter with each passing day. It could be said that they were actually fortunate to have lived until now so obliviously to the problem.