Chapter 235: Darkseid’s Conspiracy
Earth.
A forgotten corner.
Around an altar naturally formed by black rocks deep within a mountain range, it looked eerie with yin energy, and the air was filled with the sickly sweet smell of sulfur mixed with old blood.
On the rough rock walls were carved distorted runes full of blasphemy against Heaven and God, which under the flickering torchlight seemed to writhe like living things, faintly visible.
There, a dozen figures clad in tattered black robes were prostrating themselves on the cold ground, chanting ancient and guttural prayers in low voices, their tones fanatical and hoarse, merging into an unsettling resonance—these were Sangong Mo’s most loyal and secretive followers.
Unlike those low-level demon worshippers who only created chaos, they pursued something deeper: the dark knowledge and power belonging to the essence of that dimension demon god.
“Aba aba aba~ Kabuda~”
This group was clearly performing some kind of ritual.
Muttering incantations under their breath.
Suddenly—
In the center of the altar, the eerie green demonic fire that had been burning calmly surged violently! The flames no longer danced chaotically but twisted and condensed madly as if possessing life and will!
“What’s going on?”
“What’s happening!”
“Has the great Master responded to us?” The followers’ chants stopped abruptly, and all of them lifted their heads in terror and excitement, gazing at the mutated flames.
The eerie green flames intertwined and spiraled in the air, ultimately outlining a crystal-clear humanoid silhouette made of pure demonic energy—a boy’s figure, with clear details, even the expression that infuriated anyone who saw it, perfectly captured by the flames.
The pattern was clearly Ian.
Sangong Mo’s drawing skills seemed really good; even if he lost his job as demon king in Hell, he could apply to be a failed art student or something.
Of course, Sangong Mo was unaware of this for now; it was reaching into the dimension of reality through its own power, transmitting its will to its followers on Earth.
Sangong Mo was indeed quite angry.
It was launching its revenge plan overnight.
Through the followers’ ritual, a grand, cold will filled with endless wrath and majesty exploded directly in the depths of all the followers’ souls.
It was the voice of their supreme Master—Sangong Mo!
“Find him!”
“Uncover everything about this boy! His true name! His hidden bloodline! His physical and mental weaknesses! Everything he cares about and cherishes!”
“Offer his information to me! I shall grant you… true abyssal power!” Clearly, Sangong Mo didn’t quite believe that Ian was really the Son of Superman.
He thought Ian must have another identity, like some demon king using Superman’s wife’s pregnancy to breed a demon child in the human world; it was hard for something not from Hell to be that depraved.
To hide its weakness, Sangong Mo’s will didn’t linger in the human world.
After conveying this unquestionable oracle, the “Ian” silhouette formed by the demonic fire exploded violently, turning into countless green sparks that dissipated into the air, leaving only the flames still burning faintly on the altar, along with the thicker sulfur smell in the air and the oppressive feeling from being gazed upon by a supreme existence that hadn’t dissipated.
“!!!”
The followers first fell into dead silence, then erupted into even more fanatical shouts!
They slammed their foreheads forcefully against the cold ground, making dull thuds, expressing absolute obedience to the oracle and ecstatic joy at the impending boon.
“We obey your will! Great Lord of Sangong!”
“We shall search every inch of the earth to present all information on this blasphemer before you!”
“For the glory of the Abyss!”
Mad oaths echoed in the cave; these venomous snakes hiding in the shadows of human society had begun to hiss, their target the “God of Light” who was still completely unaware.
Ian Kent.
……
Meanwhile.
Deep underground in Gotham City.
Batcave.
In stark contrast to the classical luxury of the manor above, this was a realm of cold technology and absolute order.
In the core area of this particular Batcave, one of the most heavily guarded zones, was the medical monitoring room with the highest security measures.
The reason was simple.
Batman had stashed quite a few outsiders here, including Superman on his back.
Inside the medical room, stark shadowless lamps illuminated several advanced medical pods lined up like coffins. The pods were made of reinforced glass and some dark metal, with faint data streams flowing on the surface, filled internally with life-sustaining nutrient fluid and precise monitoring probes.
Two of the medical pods held “heavyweight” figures in slumber.
One was the bald, pale-faced Lex Luthor, who had been comatose since being ousted by another Luthor from the multiverse, “recovered” by Batman and under strict surveillance.
Bruce Wayne’s research on Lex Luthor had achieved considerable success; without telling anyone, he would soon master the miraculous technology to lock onto other isotopes in the multiverse via one isotope. And Batman clearly wouldn’t use it just for Lex Luthor’s other isotopes.
Besides Lex Luthor, the other figure slumbering there was Injustice Superman, who had recently been pregnant with the Gourd Babies; he too was placed here in a state of power suppression and consciousness freeze.
However.
Despite freezing Injustice Superman’s bodily functions at his request, maintaining only minimal life signs, Injustice Superman’s pregnancy symptoms were utterly unaffected; his hugely swollen belly could go into labor at any moment.
Batman had no choice.
He could only take the opportunity to study Kryptonian genes through Injustice Superman, as well as the life form born in Injustice Superman’s body because of Ian.
Whether out of curiosity or danger assessment, Batman had to do this quietly, which was also why he built this Batcave more secretly.
Today, there was a new “guest” here.
In the third medical pod lay the unconscious Raven Rachel Rose.
Her pale face still bore the pain and exhaustion from confronting Sangong Mo, her deep blue hooded robe changed to a standard patient gown.
Originally.
Raven’s coma was like Sleeping Beauty.
However, at this moment, the soul gem on her forehead—symbolizing her half-demon bloodline and one of her power sources—was emitting an extremely faint yet more active dark red glow than usual, clearly due to a slight resonance of the homologous bloodline power in Raven triggered by her father Sangong Mo’s large-scale activity in the human world.
In the past.
Raven could use this to judge Sangong Mo’s movements, spy on Sangong Mo’s conspiracies and intentions, but today she had indeed been injected with an unknown amount of sedatives by Batman.
The coma continued.
With no sign of waking.
Around the medical pod, besides gene-sampling robots, dozens of sensors continuously scanned her vital signs, energy fluctuations, and soul gem status. Any anomaly would trigger an alarm directly linked to Batman’s main console and his portable receiver.
“Beep beep beep~”
At that moment.
Next to the medical pod, a high-precision energy fluctuation monitor’s reading jumped sharply! The needle swung into the red zone indicating “high-dimensional interference” and “unknown dark energy”!
However.
The alarm system was just about to activate!
The piercing buzzer had formed at the circuit level, ready to echo through the entire medical area and send the highest-priority warning to Batman.
In the next instant! An intangible yet overwhelmingly suppressive force, like the deepest night, descended silently, instantly enveloping the entire medical monitoring room! The impending buzzer was choked off like a throat gripped by an invisible hand!
All anomalous data streams on the monitoring screens were forcibly overridden and reset by some higher authority, instantly returning to steady green normal values!
This happened too fast, too secretly; even the medical pod’s most precise quantum-level sensors failed to record that momentary interference.
“Sizzle sizzle~”
Amid this forcibly created illusion of “normality,” a shadow that appeared utterly pure, as if composed of the thickest shadows, seemed to sprout from nowhere.
It silently solidified beside Raven’s medical pod.
The shadow had no distinct form, only vaguely outlining a majestic silhouette like a mountain range, and those destructive eyes clearly perceptible even in the darkness.
Those eyes burning with destructive crimson light were Darkseid’s facial feature!
Of course, once bitten by a snake, one fears ropes for ten years; this shadow was neither Darkseid’s reborn “true body” nor a complete clone in some form.
If one had to describe it, the shadow was more like a power projection that had penetrated dimensional barriers, merely a shadow containing its essential will.
Evidently.
After realizing certain issues about himself, Darkseid had learned some tricks, mastering this method akin to high-dimensional projection into lower dimensions.
“Sangong Mo’s daughter.” His crimson “gaze” coldly swept over the comatose Raven in the medical pod, finally fixating on the faintly glowing soul gem on her forehead.
“She will become my sharpest weapon.”
The shadow raised a hand formed of shadows.
A “finger” condensed from the origin of darkness slowly pointed toward Raven’s forehead, targeting the crystal on her forehead containing extraordinary power!
Though there was no physical contact, the moment the shadow finger neared the gem, strands of pure and subtle black smoke emerged like living venomous snakes.
They surged from the tip of Darkseid’s projection, silently seeping into the crystal!
The gem’s dark red glow flickered violently as if resisting, but it was soon suppressed and infiltrated by the deeper, more essential dark power.
The entire process lasted less than three seconds. Then, Darkseid’s shadow dissipated without a trace, as if it had never existed.
In the medical monitoring room, all monitoring data still showed “normal.” Only the gem on Raven’s forehead, representing high-dimensional power and bloodline origin, seemed to have a faint, hard-to-detect black qi slowly churning inside, but soon this anomaly hid completely like lurking venom.
The gem returned to its previous slightly active dark red sheen.
As if nothing had happened.
Even the surveillance equipment captured no anomalies—or rather, they had captured them, but the data was forcibly altered by some high-dimensional power.
No anomalies ever appeared in the footage.
Even Batman was unaware anything had occurred.
He was even busy worrying about other matters.
In the Batcave main control room, Bruce Wayne stared intently at the largest screen before him, brows furrowed, his face darker than Gotham’s night sky.
The screen displayed not a crime map of Gotham or global crisis alerts, but the internal forum interface of the Superhero Popularity Center, which he had tinkered with—usually ignored by everyone but skyrocketed to global fame after Ian took it over【Superhero Popularity Center】.
At this moment, a hot section of the forum had been completely exploded by a post with an extremely shocking title.
【Shocking! Dark Knight’s True Face! Betrays Allies for Profit?! Pics and Proof!】 Posted by none other than Green Arrow Oliver Queen!
Clearly furious.
He started frantically writing little essays about Batman.
God knows how many essay experts this billionaire hired; the post was maximally inflammatory, detailing how the “God of Light” Ian Kent “barely won” against the demon but was backstabbed by “Batman” at the last moment, with an alternative interpretation.
Though fabricated, it was written convincingly, with real emotion; Oliver raged in the post, claiming he and many “trusted” allies of Batman, even some deceived civilians, had been backstabbed, and the real reason wasn’t Batman thinking they harmed Earth.
Money.
Still money.
Batman was actually a money-grubbing guy; everyone should question Batman’s motives and character—Green Arrow fabricated this with evidence and logic in the post.
Plenty of people were willing to believe it.
“We always thought he was the silent guardian, but he’s the deepest predator! Makes sense! Only fools think Gotham produces good people?”
“You’re regional discriminating! What? Gotham? Never mind then.”
“Must give all the deceived a statement! I was tricked too, bought tons of Batman lottery tickets, never won, demand Batman disclose accounts and refund all illegal gains!”
“My cousin aunt’s younger brother’s friend told me Batman steals and extorts from Bruce Wayne, the richest man in Gotham, when he’s broke.”
“Yes, yes, I’ve heard similar stories.”
The post had tons of replies. Though not without ones like The Flash Barry Allen’s “…” showing speechless, or Wonder Woman Diana’s “Exercise caution in judgment” trying to cool things down, most were anonymous accounts rhythm-stirring wildly.
All sorts of “dirt” on Batman, from “overly controlling” to “suspected catwoman-infected jock itch”; Green Arrow’s tactics were no more merciful than Ian’s.
Ruthless. Someone even started a “Least Trusted Superhero” poll, with Batman’s name leading by a landslide!
Bruce watched the absurd accusations and malicious comments on the screen, feeling his temples throbbing. He had faced countless crises and mad enemies in his life, but being “towered” by a superhero and publicly “tried” and slandered on a silly internal forum was a first.
Absolutely the first time.
“Damn playboy!”
Batman’s face was full of shifting gloom.
He knew this mess was Ian’s doing—the fake Batman and global betting were all Ian’s handiwork. But Green Arrow Oliver, that stubborn guy, was convinced it was Bruce Wayne behind it, dumping all his rage on him.
He tried contacting Oliver via encrypted channel.
But got rejected outright.
He had Alfred physically cut the net cable at Queen’s manor, but the feedback was Oliver was prepared, using not just caution but even defense-grade cables for internet.
“Has this guy’s brain been infected by that so-called Ian virus?”
Bruce couldn’t help muttering a curse.
He was speechless now; unless he dragged Ian out for confrontation, but anyone could guess that kid would muddy the waters more.
While scratching his head.
Batman completely failed to notice that just minutes ago, a shadow from the Dark Lord had quietly planted a dangerous seed in the deepest part of his supposedly impregnable Batcave.
Silently.
