Through the efforts of the Thousand-Person Herrscher.
Civilization had fallen into a state of paranoia where everyone feared for their own safety. As time went on, the Flame-Chasers discovered the existence of the Thousand-Person Herrscher, but they had no way of determining just how many individuals this "plural existence" Herrscher had.
The most direct consequence of this was...
No one could guarantee that the person closest to them had not already had their consciousness and mind taken over by the Honkai. The fear of living with monsters, and the resentment of seeing a face completely identical to a loved one, with no discernible difference, being taken away by the Flame-Chasers.
These two emotions...
Human society wasn't just on the verge of becoming a powder keg; it had already begun to experience various kinds of "self-detonations" on a global scale.
At this time, the Honkai should not "interfere" as an external force; doing so might instead cause humanity to abandon their suspicions and unite.
The legions took no direct action.
And their current state did not permit them to take direct action either.
After all... although Kevin had lost the Judgement of Shamash, even if he hadn't yet reached the [Karma Demon] level of Honkai Eruption, he was not someone Cheche and Sheshe could stop.
Not to mention.
Behind them was an Elysia of unknown depth.
So.
The legions gave humanity a hand.
That's right. Humanity didn't know the number of individuals the Thousand-Person Herrscher had, but Lu Xing did. Humanity couldn't accurately capture the presence of the Thousand-Person Herrscher, but Lu Xing could.
The Emperor didn't even need to act personally. The Four War Temples alone were capable of accurately detecting traces of the Thousand-Person Herrscher over a wide area.
After all...
Although his main body had sunk into the sea, causing the authorities bestowed upon his subordinates to be weakened to an extremely low level, as long as the authorities were still there, sensing a similar aura was not a difficult task.
The Thousand-Person Herrscher had done a good job.
But they were still far from being able to completely annihilate humanity.
His own plan could not be delayed either. The "Authority of Domination" was an extremely valuable asset to the Emperor. With the time and state of his main body's return both uncertain, Lu Xing decided to strike first to gain the upper hand.
Otherwise, if he waited until all the Thousand-Person Herrscher were dealt with...
The boost that 1000 Keys of Domination would give humanity was no small number. Considering the technology Dr. Mei had previously shown to create "Pseudo-Divine Keys," if she were to manufacture all these "True Divine Keys" that possessed real Herrscher authorities (even if only a small part), the threat to himself and his legions would rise to another level.
Thus.
Even though the destructive power of the Thousand-Person Herrscher had not yet been pushed to its limit.
The legions had already made their move in advance, beginning to "capture" the Thousand-Person Herrscher. For those living in the "fringe areas," the legions disguised themselves as wild Honkai Beasts and struck. For the part that was hidden deep within human society, that was left to the Loli Demon God and her death-knight squad to handle.
Hiding in human society.
This also meant that this portion of the Thousand-Person Herrscher could not absorb much extra Honkai energy. The combat power of the death-knight squad was more than sufficient for the job.
And this was precisely the reason the Loli Demon God had appeared here.
"501 cores..."
"This number should be enough."
In the center of the Antarctic continent, as the last three "mission squads" successfully returned, Lu Xing's "Herrscher of Domination Capture Plan" was also coming to an end.
Although the Authority of Domination was somewhat special, a quantity exceeding 50% should be enough for Lu Xing to obtain it. As for the rest, it wasn't that Lu Xing didn't want to capture them, but that the difficulty of the operation was increasing exponentially.
Even without exact numbers, the number of Thousand-Person Herrscher individuals that had fallen into the hands of the Flame-Chasers should have already exceeded 200. The number that had died during the "resistance" was probably close to 100.
In other words.
There were now less than 200 "active" Thousand-Person Herrscher individuals remaining. The identities of these remaining individuals were mostly very sensitive and deeply involved. If his legions were to make a move, it would only create more trouble.
The harvest was already bountiful.
Lu Xing decisively chose to pull back.
As for the subsequent trouble, and the "Keys of Domination" as a reward, he would leave that for the Flame-Chasers to solve themselves.
"Variant."
"What exactly do you want?"
All the Herrscher of Domination individuals captured by the legions had been sealed by Lu Xing.
The Black Temple avatar's normal combat power was only equivalent to an Emperor-class, but with the enhancement of his authorities, his true level was that of a proper Judgement-class. The [Universal Stagnation] he used was perfect for "keeping them fresh."
Of course.
Among the captured Thousand-Person Herrscher, there was no shortage of combat-type individuals. The strongest among them was currently being personally watched by Lu Xing.
"What do I want?"
"Isn't it obvious? This is for your own good."
"If you were turned into weapons by humans, who knows how much more trouble that would cause in the future."
Lu Xing had a lot on his mind right now, so he was in no mood to waste time with the Herrscher of Domination. Without any "disguise," all individuals of the Thousand-Person Herrscher shared a single consciousness.
"You!"
"..."
"If we had cooperated sincerely, we could have achieved far greater results. The possibility of completely eradicating humanity would not have been out of reach."
The Thousand-Person Herrscher clearly wanted to erupt in anger.
But being under another's roof, it could only turn its words into a more euphemistic statement.
"Eradicate?"
In his Black Temple form, Lu Xing was clearly more inclined to chat than as the "Emperor."
"Whether you could eradicate humanity is hard to say."
"But we would have likely all become bait for you to achieve your goal."
To be honest.
The Thousand-Person Herrscher was definitely diligent when it came to carrying out its "work," and it didn't put on any airs—of course, this was also related to its strength. If Lu Xing were to give it a score, he would at least rate it a model Herrscher.
It was just a pity...
"Besides, that's not something you need to consider 'now'."
"If I had to say, you might have a chance to achieve this goal in the 'future'... in the form of becoming one of my authorities."
The moment Lu Xing's voice fell.
A terrifying fluctuation that made the entire continent tremble stretched from the South Pacific all the way to the center of Antarctica!
"BOOM!!!"
The sea and sky shattered like glass, peeling away from the world's massive scroll painting.
A brilliant golden ring appeared in the firmament. Tsunami-like spatial ripples, just as they seemed about to tear this world apart, dissipated into silence.
"Swish."
A dark-golden figure stood tall in the sky.
The Emperor...
had retaken command of his legion!