The City Lord's private library was absolutely massive.

I stood in the doorway, trying to take in the sheer scope of what Feng Zhaoyang had built over his centuries of rule.

The main chamber stretched upward for at least four stories, with spiral staircases carved directly into the walls leading to different levels of knowledge. Floating platforms drifted between the floors, each one carrying stacks of scrolls or bound manuscripts that reorganized themselves according to some complex filing system I couldn't immediately understand.

The walls themselves were lined floor to ceiling with jade shelves, each one inscribed with preservation formations that kept the contents in perfect condition. Soft golden light emanated from formations embedded in the ceiling, providing illumination without the harsh glare that might damage sensitive materials. The air carried the faint scent of sandalwood and something else, the distinctive smell of aged knowledge.

But what really caught my attention were the specialized sections.

One entire wall was dedicated to what looked like captured correspondence from rival cities, sealed in spiritual containers that prevented the contents from degrading. Another section held what appeared to be confession scrolls; testimonies from Disbelievers who had been "reconverted" through various methods, their experiences documented in excruciating detail.

"This is exactly what we need," I murmured, pulling out the jade token Feng Zhaoyang had given me. The thing was warm to the touch, and I could feel the spiritual signature woven into its structure, not just an access key, but a master override for the entire facility.

I channeled a small amount of qi into the token, watching as golden light spread from it to touch various formation nodes throughout the library. One by one, the security restrictions began dissolving. Protective barriers flickered out of existence, locked cabinets clicked open, and even the most sensitive materials became accessible.

With that done, I turned my attention to the security formation that would keep us from being interrupted. The controls were hidden behind a panel near the entrance, protected by multiple layers of verification. But with the master token, the whole system recognized me as having full authority.

The moment I activated the lockdown; I felt the building's defenses snap into place around us. The walls themselves became barriers that would turn away even a World-Writ Sovereign's techniques, and the air grew thick with spiritual energy designed to prevent any form of scrying or remote observation.

We were completely isolated from the outside world.

"Alright, Azure," I said internally, settling into a comfortable reading chair near the center of the main chamber. "Start adding everything to the database. Prioritize cultivation techniques, historical records about Disbelievers, and anything that looks like it might be connected to the original corruption of this realm."

"Already on it," Azure replied, and I felt his attention spread throughout the library like invisible tendrils. "This is going to take some time, though. The City Lord was quite thorough in his collecting habits."

While Azure worked, my mind drifted back to the events of the past few hours. After that glowing number three had appeared in the sky, I'd known there was no point in maintaining the pretense that I was just Du Yanze with an unusually lucky breakthrough.

I'd gathered everyone around, the City Lord, Li Qiang, the ancient oak, Little Bloom, even the pompous Stone Emperor, and simply told them the truth.

"I'm not Du Yanze," I'd said, allowing my spiritual manifestation to separate slightly from the young man's body. "I'm one of the divine beings that descended to this realm for the tournament. Du Yanze has been serving as my vessel, but the consciousness you've been interacting with is mine."

The reaction had been... surprisingly calm.

"I suspected as much," Feng Zhaoyang had said. "The Du Yanze I met at formal functions was nothing like the person who challenged my entire worldview."

The forest spirits had taken it in stride.

The ancient oak had simply nodded his massive trunk, saying something about how it explained the "transcendent energies" he'd sensed from the beginning.

Little Bloom had been excited, asking if this meant she could call me "Divine Mister" instead of just "Mister."

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Even the Stone Emperor had managed to work it into his grandiose worldview, declaring that of course he had been chosen to serve as seating for a genuine divine being rather than a mere mortal cultivator.

With the truth out in the open, we'd been able to plan more effectively.

The problem was obvious: Feng Zhaoyang's transformation into a Disbeliever couldn't be hidden. That spiritual signature was like a beacon announcing his changed nature to anyone with decent cultivation. And in a realm where the very air seemed designed to expose and eliminate clear thinking, it wouldn't be long before someone noticed and raised the alarm.

Which is why we'd decided on a bold approach: instead of trying to hide what had happened, we'd take control of the situation entirely.

I would infiltrate the city using Feng Zhaoyang's access token and gather the knowledge I needed for my confrontation with Yuan Zhen. Meanwhile, Feng Zhaoyang would begin the process of systematically freeing the city's population from their delusions.

It was a dangerous plan.

Every person they converted would resist the process, fighting desperately to maintain beliefs that had defined their entire existence. And those who couldn't be converted would inevitably organize resistance movements, bringing in reinforcements from neighboring cities or calling upon the dreaded Tribunals that specialized in eliminating Disbelievers.

But Feng Zhaoyang had been surprisingly optimistic about their chances.

"The corruption runs deep," he'd said, "but it's also brittle. Most people's beliefs are built on foundations of sand, they know, on some level, that their grandiose self-importance doesn't match their actual accomplishments. When confronted with genuine clarity, many will welcome the relief of being able to think rationally again."

I'd told the ancient oak and Little Bloom to remain in the forest for their own safety. The last thing I wanted was for those innocent beings to get caught up in what was essentially going to be a spiritual war.

The Stone Emperor, however, had declared his intention to "convert the entire forest into devoted followers of the Divine Master." I hadn't stopped him. Partly because I doubted he could actually manage such a feat, but mostly because every genuine Witness of Fate did seem to boost Du Yanze's cultivation base. And if we were going to have any chance of succeeding in this realm, we'd need all the power we could get.

"Master," Azure's voice interrupted my brooding, "I'm picking up some interesting energy signatures from the city below. It looks like our friends have begun their work."

I could feel it too, distant flares of spiritual pressure as techniques clashed, followed by the gradual spreading of that distinctive Disbeliever aura. Feng Zhaoyang and his team were making progress, one converted citizen at a time.

While Azure continued compiling information, I decided to pass the time by doing some reading of my own.

I picked up a leather-bound volume from a nearby shelf, drawn by the ominous title embossed in gold lettering: "Historical Account of the Great Doubt Plague: A Complete Record of the Disbeliever War."

The book was thick, clearly a comprehensive treatment of the subject, and as I opened it, I could see why the City Lord had kept it in his private collection rather than the public archives.

The opening chapter was brutal in its honesty:

In the year 2847 of the Current Era, the Western Province faced an unprecedented crisis. What began as isolated incidents of spiritual deviation quickly escalated into a realm-threatening plague of doubt that would claim millions of lives and leave entire regions uninhabitable for generations.

The first confirmed case was recorded in Jade River City, when a merchant cultivator named Huang Yaoshi suffered what appeared to be a standard Crisis of Doubt following financial ruin. However, rather than falling into the expected despair or accepting reconversion therapy, Huang began actively preaching that the entire cultivation system was built on delusion.

His words found fertile ground among the desperate and disillusioned. Within months, Jade River City had become a nexus of spiritual corruption, its population increasingly converted to the heretical belief that personal chosenness was meaningless, that cultivation advancement was largely due to resources and training rather than divine favor, and that the universe was indifferent to individual human importance.

I paused in my reading, struck by the clinical way the author described what I now understood were actually just rational thoughts. The book continued:

The plague spread through multiple vectors.

Disbelievers seemed capable of inducing Crisis of Doubt in others through philosophical argument, spiritual pressure, or simple exposure to their corrupted aura over extended periods.

Most disturbing was their apparent immunity to conventional cultivation techniques; many tried and tested methods simply failed when confronted by their reality-denying abilities.

By the second year, entire cities had fallen. The Disbelievers organized themselves into what they called "Clarity Movements," systematically working to free others from what they termed "delusional thinking." They established schools where children were taught to question authority, to demand evidence for claims, and to base their beliefs on observation rather than faith.

The corruption reached its peak in the third year, when several Disbeliever leaders achieved what can only be described as reverse ascension. Rather than advancing to higher realms through increased conviction, they seemed to gain power through the systematic elimination of belief itself.

These beings, known as "Void Sages," could nullify techniques simply by existing near them, and their presence caused mass conversion events where entire populations lost faith simultaneously.

I set the book down for a moment, feeling a little sick at the heavy propaganda.

What the author was describing as spiritual corruption sounded horrifyingly like organized efforts to promote rational thinking and evidence-based reasoning.

The "Clarity Movements" hadn't been trying to destroy the world; they'd been trying to save it from exactly the kind of delusional madness I'd been witnessing since my arrival.

But they'd been crushed, and the realm's present condition told the story of just how completely they'd been destroyed.

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