Translator: CKtalon
“You don’t have to be so surprised. He’s indeed our family’s hero and pride, my great-grandfather, Frod,” Lance said.
“But...” Zhou Wen looked at Frod in the ice wall. No matter how he looked at him, it was just an ice sculpture. Apart from having a humanoid shape, it didn’t have any human characteristics.
The ice sculpture-like Frod revealed a smile. “The reason I became like this is because I violated the agreement with the holy temple. If you are interested, I can tell you the story.”
Zhou Wen naturally wanted to know. He knew too little about the older generation.
“Back then, Zhang Daotian, Xia Jiuhuang, and I were still very young. We were about the same age as you...” Frod slowly said as he sank into his memories.
When the dimensional storms descended, many unknown mysterious areas appeared in the human world. Many people died because they found themselves in the mysterious areas. Many deranged people obtained powers that were akin to superpowers. Human society nearly collapsed.
At that moment, six youths stood forward and used their strength to defeat all the great devils. They expelled them overseas and established a new order—the current Federation.
The six youths were naturally the six heroes of the past.
However, Frod’s story was somewhat different from the legend of the six heroes. According to him, there was no such thing as six heroes because there were many young people who had entered the Holy Land with them.
Among the people who came out of the Holy Land, eventually, six of them were the most famous. Furthermore, they established the Federation government, so they became the legend of the six heroes.
“In fact, many of the people who entered the Holy Land with us back then had talent that wasn’t inferior to the six of us. They were even stronger than us. For example, Jing Daoxian’s talent far exceeded the six of us. Unfortunately, he didn’t obtain the recognition of the six Holy Temples, nor did he obtain a special physique.” When Frod said that, his expression turned odd. “However, Jing Daoxian’s failure might not be a bad thing. This is because although we were glorious when we obtained the special physiques and Companion Beasts, something unimaginable happened later.”
“What happened?” Zhou Wen couldn’t help but ask.
“The physiques given to us by the six Holy Temples all have different flaws, but we didn’t know about them beforehand,” Frod answered.
“What flaws?” Zhou Wen was puzzled.
“For example, Xia Jiuhuang’s Connate Sacred Body is an almost undying physique. However, a Connate Sacred Body has to maintain its virginity. Once one loses their virginity, the Connate Sacred Body will be gone. The other five physiques also have various strange flaws, but they aren’t as obvious as the Connate Sacred Body.”
Frod paused for a moment before continuing, “Due to the existence of these flaws, we had no choice but to think of a way to resolve them. However, no matter what method we used, we were unable to make up for them. Therefore, in order to prevent our flaws from being exploited by others, we had no choice but to think of various methods. The easiest way to resolve them was to seek help from the Holy Temple.”
“In that case, the Holy Temple is using these special physiques to threaten you?” Zhou Wen understood what Frod meant.
“That’s right. On the surface, the six of us are the six heroes of the Federation, but in fact, we are just puppets of the Holy Temple. During that period of time, many of the things we did came from the Holy Temple’s orders, including the establishment of the Federation government.” Frod revealed a secret that left Zhou Wen shocked beyond belief.
“Could it be that... the Federation government is actually just a puppet government?” Zhou Wen widened his eyes.
Frod shook his head. “Not entirely. In fact, the six families are secretly searching for a way to resolve their problems in order to escape the Holy Temple’s control.
“Furthermore, it’s a huge mistake if the Holy Temple thinks that they can completely control us like this.” Frod said indifferently, “It’s precisely because I disobeyed the Holy Temple’s orders that they made use of the weakness in my physique to turn me into this. The other fellows also did the same thing openly or secretly. Therefore, although the Holy Temple has a huge influence on the Federation, they don’t have absolute influence because they can’t descend personally.
“In addition, Wang Mingyuan had previously used the power of the Holy Temple to weaken the connection between the Holy Land and Earth. This decreased the influence again, but it still can’t be underestimated. If the Holy Temple insists on doing something, they will have many ways to achieve their goals. The six hero families aren’t completely united,” said Frod.
“You didn’t invite me here just to tell me this, right?” Zhou Wen asked.
Frod looked at Zhou Wen with an odd expression. After a long while, he said, “I got Lance to invite you here because I wish you to help me and my family do something. If this can be done, perhaps our family can completely escape the control of the Holy Temple.”
“Aren’t you thinking too highly of me?” Zhou Wen had entered the Holy Land before and had visited a few Holy Temples. He knew that there were extremely terrifying existences there.
In the past, he had only felt that they were strong. Now that he thought about it, the existences in the temple were likely all at the Terror grade or even stronger.
Frod smiled and said, “If you can do it, it will be very beneficial to you.”
“Can you tell me what it is?” Zhou Wen was still very curious.
“In the Maze of Lies, there’s the mask of the God of Mischief. Only by obtaining that mask can we use the power of the mask to escape the influence of the special physique. I hope you can help us obtain that mask.” Frod paused before saying, “In return, I’ll tell you a secret regarding the Holy Land. You will definitely be interested in it.”
Zhou Wen looked at Frod with an odd expression. Although he was Lance’s elder, he didn’t have any intention of helping him considering how he was being so vague.
From Zhou Wen’s expression, Frod knew what he was thinking. Therefore, he said, “This secret is related to the disappearance of Professor Ouyang Ting and company. You are very concerned about this matter, right?”
“Professor Ouyang Ting went missing in Zhuolu. It has nothing to do with the Holy Land.” Zhou Wen frowned.
Frod smiled and said, “Child, the six Holy Temples represent the six strongest races of the dimension. Zhuolu is the battlefield of the divine war between two of the races. And you think it’s unrelated?”
Zhou Wen looked at Frod with some hesitation because he wasn’t sure if he could believe him.
To others, the six heroes might be extremely lofty existences, but Zhou Wen had seen Xia Jiuhuang’s horror and knew that they were actually different from the heroes spoken about in legend.