A Demon's Journey

Nearly two hundred years ago, a majority of parliament's members were actually selling useful intel of the Pinhian Republic to the other kingdoms. All this to increase their personal wealth and influence.

Using that information, those other kingdoms actually managed to trap three disciples of Vicious Lightning Paragon and killed them ruthlessly!

After finding this information and verifying it with someone trustworthy, the Vicious Lightning Paragon could no longer contain his fury.

He slaughtered all members of the parliament and then led the soldiers in the battle against the Kingdom of Beria. It was the battle where the Vicious Lightning Paragon's insight into the Lightning Law deepened tremendously, and he reached the peak of Emperor Rank. It was also the same day that he killed two Emperor Rank Warriors.

This greatly boosted the Vicious Lightning Paragon's renown and forced the Kingdom of Beria to surrender. They had no way to counter the Vicious Lightning Paragon.

However, even though the Vicious Lightning Paragon was extremely powerful, the Kingdom of Beria had its countermeasures to deal with him.

They possessed secret formations that could utilize the Ardor and power of laws from 2 Emperor Ranked Experts and 12 King Ranked Warriors, empowering their defensive formation to be strong enough to defeat the Vicious Lightning Paragon.

In fact, the defensive formation included a cannon that could be utilized to assault the enemy by gathering a tremendous amount of energy.

Even the Vicious Lightning Paragon would be heavily injured if this cannon's attack struck him. Thus, he didn't dare to approach their capital city.

However, the converse was also true. The two Emperor Ranked Warriors in the capital didn't dare to leave and fight the Vicious Lightning Paragon without employing that secret array.

Their fighting ability wasn't strong enough to battle a monster like the Vicious Lightning Paragon.

Very soon, the Vicious Lightning Paragon left the frontlines and was focused on teaching his disciples regarding all forms of warfare.

And right now, he had five disciples, all of them supremely skilled in the use of different weapons. Shockingly, these five warriors belonged to only two families.

Three warriors belonged to one family, while the remaining belonged to the other. They were brothers.

The three blood brothers were skilled in Spear, Sword, and Bow. Meanwhile, the remaining two were skilled in Mace and Daggers.

All of them were King-Ranked experts and held the potential to reach the Emperor Rank. Thus, they possessed significant influence within the Pinhian Republic.

These five warriors went through extremely grueling training that would have killed any other warrior. However, these five warriors survived this training through sheer determination!

They understood why the Vicious Lightning Paragon had subjected them to such rigorous training. He wanted to pass his position to them in the near future. He wanted them to guard the Pinhian Republic from its adversaries.

The Vicious Lightning Paragon is already quite old. He can barely survive another century or so. And that's only possible if he doesn't fight a big battle in this century.

However, the Lamhilhan Theocracy and the Kingdom of Beria were making some suspicious moves. It was expected from the Kingdom of Beria, but the actions of the Lamhilhan Theocracy were a bit unexpected.

The Lamhilhan Theocracy had just been dealt a heavy blow by the Glerian Kingdom's forces before the latter was swallowed by the Sinyalian Kingdom.

For them to already start making a move against another kingdom was a bit unexpected.

The threat from the Lamhilhan Theocracy was a bit greater because the Emperor Ranked Experts of this kingdom were Celestials. Dealing with Celestials was much more challenging as compared to dealing with humans.

There was a simple reason for that.

The Celestials had preserved their knowledge, ancient skills, array techniques, and alchemy methods. Thus, the surprise element was mostly on the side of the Celestials.

The Vicious Lightning Paragon was concerned that the Radiant Church would attempt to conquer the Pinhian Republic after his death. As a result, he was leaving behind successors who would be more than capable of making the Pinhian Republic greater than ever.

During his final years, the Vicious Lightning Paragon planned to protect them and act as their guide.

The five had spent nearly decades together and were as close as blood brothers.

They planned to act according to the Vicious Lightning Paragon's plan and become the guardians of the Pinhian Republic.

At this moment, they had separated and ventured into different battlefields to gain valuable experience. This experience didn't mean the combat experience but the ability to deal with people.

The Vicious Lightning Paragon had informed them that even if they were the most skilled warriors, they couldn't achieve by fighting alone. They must learn the art of reading the battlefield, politics, traps, and people.

These skills couldn't be taught. They had to be taught the old-fashioned way, via trial and error.

They had to understand the thought process of people. Why the people thought that way? And figure out what they must do to put them on the right path.

Some might argue that this was not a warrior's job. A warrior's job was to fight and protect its nation.

Guiding the people was not necessary to truly become a great warrior. However, the Vicious Lightning Paragon didn't just want to leave behind five warriors who could protect the Pinhian Republic.

He wanted to leave behind five righteous men who could clean the corruption of the Pinhian Republic's ministers and officials. He wanted them to finally deal with the sufferings of the common people.

It took the Vicious Lightning Paragon a very long time to realize that the internal problems required as much attention as the external threats.

The system of the parliament was certainly very fair on the surface. However, it couldn't work practically in the Pinhian Republic.

This was because of the distinction between the rich and the poor.

The rich individual could buy their votes. And the sad reality was that the people would truly be bought. This was how bad their condition was.

In fact, by the time the Vicious Lightning Paragon understood how far the corruption had permeated the populace's psyche, he feared it was too late.

These five individuals didn't need to become prime minister or president or any other minister to make any chances in the Pinhian Republic.

Even the ministers were tied down to the welfare of their respective parties. The Vicious Lightning Paragon didn't want his disciples to be held down by such notions.

Moreover, the Vicious Lightning Paragon knew a very simple truth. If his disciples were doing the right thing, influential and powerful enough, no one in the Pinhian Republic would dare to question their decision.

People might grumble a bit, but that was only natural. No society would happily accept change. But it was absolutely necessary to change according to time.

The Vicious Lightning Paragon did inform them that to achieve his objective of truly guiding the citizens on the right path, they had to remain united.

If they started infighting, all his efforts would go down the drain. Perhaps, it might even be the trigger for an internal war!

Fortunately, the five warriors were extremely close to each other. And no one could pit them against each other.