Damon calmly leaned against a rock and took out the crystal the man had given him. "Blood Reign, can you check if there are any tracking tags on this crystal?" He knew he was being paranoid, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

When it came to light faction zealots, one absolutely couldn't underestimate their allegiance. No matter what they say or do, they will always be aligned with the light faction continent.

"Blood Reign, are you there?" Damon asked again. He then remembered something and let out a sigh. "Little red! Alright, little red."

A swift response immediately followed, accompanied by a giggle. "The crystal is clean, my liege. Nothing to worry."

Damon exhaled. He decided to deal with this troublesome woman later and focused on the crystal in his hand first. He sent a bit of his mana in, and immediately, information flooded his mind.

The Emperor had not tried to deceive him after all. All sorts of intel about the Nine Hidden Orders poured into his mind in rapid flashes, sigils, maps, codenames, base layouts, and many of the operations they had conducted.

The Nine Hidden Orders were Umbra's Hand, Venom Sigil, Pain Serpents, The Puppeteers, Sand Temple, Mind Mystiques, Shape Shifters, Beast Lords, and Crimson Sages.

Damon continued to examine all of the information in detail. He was already familiar with the Umbra's hand, but the other hidden orders were new to him, except for the Puppeteers and Crimson Sages.

The Puppeteers were expert golem makers, and the Crimson Sages were Blood ritualists who conducted mass sacrifices. In his last life, both these factions were quite famous.

Golems from the puppeteers were top-notch, and soon, they would probably leave the nine hidden orders and become a more legitimate part of the light faction continent.

Damon was pretty sure about this because in the future, when a lot of players encountered them, they were no longer in the Western Desert. If he remembered correctly, they were somewhere near Balasa city, in the Iron Mountain Kingdom, a kingdom rich in ores, with a deep history in technology. Maybe this was their sordid past, or maybe a secret branch.

It didn't matter. If they stood in his way, he was going to take them down.

Damon briefly glanced at the intel about the others. The Shape Shifters were the most interesting ones, and not a lot of information was available on them. They were rumored to possess skills that enabled them to take the form of anyone they wanted, without even the best detection skills being able to expose them.

They could apparently copy memories, voices, fighting styles, and even the quirks of a person's soul aura. They were essentially a network of spies, and unless they wanted, no one would ever suspect someone from the cult. They provided all sorts of information to the other orders and were valued highly by the entire group.

Damon wondered if the guy he had killed was also a part of the group because he had disguised himself as Alzara's friend. He then shrugged and decided to ignore them for the time being.

Though their importance to the Nine Hidden Orders was enormous, when it came to combat, they were not the most threatening. Also, it would be a pain to hunt each of them down individually. So it was best to just give up on that.

Instead, the Order he was most interested in was the Venom Sigil. In the worst-case scenario, they might help him boost his poison constitution, and in the best-case scenario…

Damon smiled and tried to see if there was any more information on this particular order, more specifically, their location. At first, he had planned to start with the Umbra's hand, but now that he knew about this Venom Sigil, he decided to start with it.

He had two hours to kill. Just enough to have a little chat with the Venom Sigil and get his feet wet in the deep, poisonous waters of the desert.

The Venom Sigil, as their name suggested, was a bunch of poison masters. According to the intel, their main sanctum was hidden deep beneath the Dune of Graves, an ancient part of the desert where even the sand hissed with residual miasma.

Even though their location was well known, these guys didn't care about it at all. Apparently, many have tried to breach their location, but the moment they set foot in the area, they already lost the fight.

No wounds. No signs of combat. Their bodies were found days later, perfectly preserved, faces frozen mid-scream, as if they had inhaled death itself. Even scavengers avoided the dunes.

The air there was said to be thick with invisible venom, poisons that could seep through skin, mana barriers, even enchanted armor. The sand itself was alive, infused with centuries of alchemical waste, all sorts of venoms and toxins that had taken on a will of their own.

According to the records, the Venom Sigil considered that death field their first and finest masterpiece, a natural defense that needed no guards. Their leader, known only as The Pale Viper, was rumored to be a Poison Grandmaster, unrivalled in the entire world.

No one knew his original form anymore. The few who had seen him and lived described a man whose veins glowed faintly green, whose eyes carried the stillness of death, and whose breath alone could melt iron.

Damon chuckled darkly as he finished reading. "They think they're untouchable behind a poison field? Cute." His crimson eyes gleamed, reflecting the faint shimmer of the desert horizon. "Let's see if their poison can keep up with mine."

He cracked his knuckles, summoning a faint ripple of blood mist around him as he activated Blood Gate once again. Though he hadn't visited this place before, he had the exact coordinates, and the skill should still work.

Just like he expected, a portal soon appeared, one that would directly take him there.

Damon stepped forward, the wind howling across the dunes, as his presence vanished into the infamous Dune of Graves.

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