As Savage recounted the deeds of the Holy Lord, Bai Qi, seated on his throne, nodded and said, "Indeed, you have done your homework on me. But you still haven't told me the real purpose of your visit."
"To join the Illuminati."
Savage cut to the chase, directly stating his intention to recruit Bai Qi into the Illuminati.
"Hahahahahaha..."
Bai Qi laughed heartily, his dragon claws slamming against the throne.
"Interesting. You humans are truly interesting."
After his laughter subsided, Bai Qi stopped and said with disdain, "You've already said I'm one of the eight primordial demons. Why would a dignified primordial demon lower himself to associate with humans?"
As soon as he finished speaking, countless shadow soldiers filled the hall.
"See? These are my soldiers. With a single command, they can destroy the army of any nation in the world."
"Yet, despite all this, you were still defeated by humans in the end."
Savage remained unfazed by Bai Qi's taunt and said calmly.
"Hmph." Bai Qi snorted and replied, "That was due to the ebb and flow of Yin and Yang. Humans defeating me was merely following the will of heaven, coupled with the use of some ignoble and underhanded tactics. In a head-on confrontation, humans are nothing but mere insects."
Far from being angered by Bai Qi's mockery, Savage retorted, "Weren't you sealed by weak humans? Twice, no less."
The moment Savage finished speaking, a powerful draconic aura permeated the entire hall. Savage, the Witch Boy, and all the shadow soldiers bore the brunt of this indiscriminate draconic pressure.
First, it was the shadow soldiers' ninjas. Under the draconic aura, they couldn't even last a minute before being crushed into black smoke. The Witch Boy, after enduring for five minutes, also knelt before Bai Qi, his body succumbing to the draconic aura.
Only Savage.
Not only was he not crushed by the draconic aura, but he exuded a kingly dominance that clashed with Bai Qi's dragon's might.
This dominance was accumulated from Savage's centuries as a king.
However, even with this, the dominance could only allow Savage to preserve himself.
"Not bad, not bad."
Savage's performance exceeded Bai Qi's expectations. His usually infallible draconic aura had been blunted against Savage. However, Bai Qi did not show it.
Retracting his draconic aura, Bai Qi looked at Savage and said, "King of Humans, you have earned the respect of a primordial demon. But..."
Bai Qi's tone shifted as he continued, "What benefits would I gain by joining this Illuminati you speak of?"
Savage replied, "Everything. No matter what you do, as long as it doesn't harm the interests of Illuminati members, the Illuminati will provide full assistance. Furthermore, the advanced technology within the Illuminati will be shared with you."
Bai Qi nodded.
Savage's words were somewhat vague regarding what constituted harming the Illuminati's interests. However, one undeniable fact was the remarkable advancement of the Illuminati's scientific and technological prowess.
"Then what is required of me?"
Man cannot live by bread alone, and certainly, someone like Savage wouldn't engage in a losing proposition.
"The Illuminati aims to accelerate the evolution of all humanity and the entire planet's civilization. Your task is simple: to disrupt world peace and stability as much as possible."
The primary reason Savage founded the Illuminati was to promote the rapid evolution of humanity.
Through the passage of countless years, Savage had come to realize that peace only made people lazy and complacent. It was only through war that civilization could rapidly evolve.
For instance, the two World Wars, despite the immense loss of life, also spurred humanity's great potential and led to an explosive development in technology.
However, now, although localized wars still existed, they were merely skirmishes and could not gain any real traction. Especially after the emergence of Supermen and a group of self-proclaimed righteous superheroes, humanity's evolution had become particularly sluggish. Humans placed their hopes on superheroes, becoming even lazier and their minds regressing.
In Savage's view, during the period when superheroes appeared, human civilization had not only failed to evolve but had actually regressed.
More importantly, entrusting the hopes of all humanity to an alien was something Savage could not tolerate.
Therefore, for the sake of all humanity, Savage founded the Illuminati and rallied like-minded individuals to resist Superman.
As the Illuminati's motto states, darkness is only temporary; light will ultimately shine.
"What you've said is indeed quite interesting. Very well, I agree to join."
Accelerating human civilization was also a good thing for Bai Qi.
After numerous fusions with the dark energy, Bai Qi clearly felt that the ceiling of this world was much higher than he had imagined. It was only due to the influence of Loppe that the world entered an era of decline, leading to its current state.
While releasing other demons could significantly strengthen the dark energy, the number of eight primordial demons, such as the Holy Lord, was simply too small. Even if Bai Qi released all the demons, with all eight gathered on Earth, at most, the dark energy would improve unilaterally. It wouldn't be enough to restore the world's overall strength to even half of its former glory in ancient times.
Ultimately, this was no longer the ancient era. The world's focus had shifted from conflicts between demons and gods to infighting among humans.
Bai Qi's ambition was not merely to be a local overlord. Entering the void and becoming stronger was what Bai Qi desired.
However, given the current state of this world, it was far from ready to welcome the void.
Bai Qi did not want his home to be plundered by other void creatures or civilizations while he was in the void.
Therefore, accelerating human civilization and strengthening the entire world was extremely necessary.
The Illuminati founded by Savage and his own ideas were perfectly aligned.
Savage was slightly surprised to hear Bai Qi agree to join. He had expected to have to persuade him further and offer more benefits, but the other party had agreed so readily.
"In that case, please accompany us, Holy Lord. You can meet the other members of the Illuminati and announce your joining."
Meeting with other members was essential, not necessarily to foster close relationships, but at least to prevent internal conflicts.
"Good."
The Witch Boy conjured a portal.
But looking at the pitifully small portal and then at Bai Qi's immense size,
Savage said helplessly, "I'll give you the address. You can go by yourself."
As Bai Qi looked at the address Savage gave him, three large characters caught his eye: Metropolis.
Well, Savage was truly bold, daring to establish an illegal organization like the Illuminati right under Superman's nose.