Chapter 356: Chapter 208: Great Zhou is Doomed
Since its founding, seven of Li Country’s ten Sovereigns have been women.
This led to Li Country becoming a nation of women over the past two hundred-plus years.
Here, women’s status is higher than men’s.
Many high-ranking court officials are also women.
This is unimaginable in the other Vassal States.
The current Patriarch of the royal Hua Family is also a woman.
As the reigning Sovereign, Hua Qianyan had always remained vigilant toward the two Vassal States of Great Feng and Great Xin, constantly observing, spying, and carrying out acts of sabotage.
Gu Zheng hunting down the Changsheng Clan was certainly astonishing, but by comparison, the Ancestral Land left behind after the Changsheng Family’s destruction was far more tempting!
’A single person can’t possibly operate an Ancestral Land...’
Hua Qianyan’s eyes flickered as a thought took shape in her mind.
...
...
「Central Celestial Dao.」
Gu Zheng soared through the air, his brow furrowed as he gazed down upon the land below.
Deathly silence.
Utter, deathly silence.
He flew for a hundred li, yet he hadn’t seen a single sign of human life.
He continued flying and passed a county town. The entire town was just as silent. There wasn’t a single soul inside, let alone any sign of vitality.
’Did Demon Fiends attack and destroy the whole town?’
’But where are the bones?’
’Or do Demon Fiends devour people whole, bones and all?’
The northern part of Fengzhou in Jing Country was also riddled with passages, and Demon Fiends were active outside its cities, but at least there were still people within the walls.
But here in Central Celestial Dao, there was no one at all.
Gu Zheng continued on his way, flying over another county town, and once again saw no people.
’Don’t tell me the Great Zhou Government Office doesn’t even have a Demon Slayer Bureau?’
’The dynasty’s fortune may be weak, but it can’t be so bad that the lands under Great Zhou’s direct jurisdiction are completely empty, right?’
’If that’s the case, then this dynasty really has no reason to exist anymore.’
’It can’t even protect its own people.’
As Gu Zheng mulled this over, he flew into yet another city.
This time, he finally saw people.
And quite a few of them. In the city center, on what was clearly a purpose-built square, knelt a dense crowd of men, women, and children.
Everyone faced a stone platform thirty feet high, chanting and shouting with pious devotion.
"Salvation from suffering comes only from the Mother God."
"Weak in this life, strong in the next, only through the Mother God."
...
’The Mother God?’
’An Evil God!?’
Gu Zheng stopped, his gaze sweeping across the dozen or so Cultists standing on the stone platform. They looked solemn and dignified as they waved their arms and shouted at the top of their lungs.
Believe in the Mother God and gain eternal life.
Sacrifice to the Mother God and be reincarnated.
...
’So all the survivors were either bewitched by the Evil God Sect or willingly joined it?’
’But what about the Government Office?’
’Are all the people from the Great Zhou Government Office dead?’
The Evil God Sect was holding a gathering right out in the open, brazenly preaching their doctrines, yet not a single person from the Government Office had appeared.
Gu Zheng hovered in the air, watching for a long while without moving to intervene.
The reason was that although these people had become followers of an Evil God, they were at least being fed.
As Gu Zheng watched, the time shifted to afternoon. A group of people emerged from the edge of the square, carrying large vats, and began distributing food to the kneeling cultists.
Gu Zheng’s eyesight was sharp enough to see that the food wasn’t bad.
’That’s good enough.’
Clearly, compared to the Eight Great Vassal States, the common people of Central Celestial Dao and Ten Thousand Dragons Dao had a much harder life.
The Great Zhou Imperial Family and its Government Office simply didn’t care about the common folk.
With Demon Fiends running rampant, having a bite to eat was a luxury.
Gu Zheng couldn’t save so many people right now.
Getting the Middle Celestial Tripod was the priority!
With that, he resumed his flight, speeding toward the location of the Middle Celestial Tripod he could sense.
Another few hundred li of dead land passed by.
He entered a large city.
The Middle Celestial Tripod he sensed was located in the center of this large city.
Gu Zheng arrived and stopped high in the air, looking toward the area of the Middle Celestial Tripod. To his surprise, he once again saw a square packed with kneeling people.
This square was even larger, with a crowd of over ten thousand people on their knees.
At the very front of the square stood a stone platform fifty feet high.
On the platform sat a Three-legged Tripod.
This Three-legged Tripod was the very Middle Celestial Tripod Gu Zheng was looking for!
’Is the Evil God Sect using the Middle Celestial Tripod as an incense burner?’
Gu Zheng hovered in the air, a strange expression on his face as he watched wisps of smoke float up from the Middle Celestial Tripod.
But in the next moment, his expression turned sharp.
He saw the Cultists on the platform shout a few words. Immediately, ten men and women who had been kneeling on the ground stood up and stiffly walked onto the stage. They ascended a series of evenly-sized wooden posts, step by step, until they reached the edge of the Middle Celestial Tripod.
In the next instant, they leaped into the Middle Celestial Tripod.
The ten men and women jumped into the Tripod Cauldron quickly and without a hint of hesitation.
WHOOSH—!
As the ten of them plunged in, a great ball of flame erupted from within the Middle Celestial Tripod.
As the flames rose, the Cultists on the platform immediately began to cheer and shout.
In the square, the tens of thousands of kneeling people joined in, yelling excitedly.
Their eyes were bloodshot, their bodies trembled, and their gazes were filled with fanaticism.
"...They’re insane..."
These people had been bewitched. They had gone completely mad.
Gu Zheng sensed an invisible power in the square. It was an immense Anomalous Power, formed by the convergence of their externalized Spirit, linked together by Evil Divine Power.
Everyone was bound together; any external interference would only drive them mad and cause their spirits to collapse.
"...I knew that Evil God was up to no good."
Gu Zheng muttered under his breath.
It was even using the Middle Celestial Tripod as a sacrificial cauldron, making the people offer up their own lives.
It truly deserves to die!
SWOOSH—
His figure flashed. Gu Zheng tore through the air and shot forward.
"Next batch!"
On the platform, the lead Evil God Cultist gave an excited shout. With a wave of his hand, another ten men and women stiffly rose from below the platform and walked up the steps.
SWISH!
THWACK—!
A flash of light streaked past.
Before any of the Evil God Cultists on the platform could even react, their heads separated from their necks, flying high into the air as pillars of blood sprayed forth.
The ten men and women walking up the steps were unaffected. They didn’t stop, but continued to walk forward and upward.
WHOOSH—!
Gu Zheng released his Divine Wondrous, enveloping the Middle Celestial Tripod. He lifted the entire cauldron and raised it high into the sky.
The ten men and women who had walked up reached the top of the wooden posts, one by one, and then jumped down.
They leaped toward the exact spot where the Middle Celestial Tripod had been.
But now that the Middle Celestial Tripod was gone, they landed one after another, rolling across the stone platform.
Throughout the entire process, not a single one of them cried out. Not even an elderly man who landed with a CRACK and twisted his ankle.
...They were completely possessed!
Gu Zheng’s brow furrowed. For a moment, he didn’t know what to do.
The Cultists on the platform were easy to deal with.
But how to save these completely possessed commoners was another matter entirely.
And then there was the Middle Celestial Tripod...
BUZZ—!!
Suddenly, the Middle Celestial Tripod trembled, releasing an invisible ripple.
SWISH SWISH SWISH—
Arrows of light shot out, circling the Middle Celestial Tripod in an attempt to push Gu Zheng away.
Gu Zheng let out a cold snort. His Divine Wondrous surged, forcefully suppressing the anomaly being released from within the Middle Celestial Tripod.
"Who is it!"
An angry voice transmitted from within the Middle Celestial Tripod.
It was clearly not a human language, but upon hearing it, the meaning was perfectly clear.
"Insolent slave! Why have you stopped the sacrifices?"
"...Sacrifice my ass!"
Gu Zheng barked, directly activating his Burning Fire Domain and enveloping the Middle Celestial Tripod within it.
FWOOSH FWOOSH FWOOSH—
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
In an instant, clusters of flames within the Burning Fire Domain blazed to life, surging around the Middle Celestial Tripod to incinerate it.
The Nine Tripods forged by Emperor Yu could not be penetrated or damaged by ordinary flames, not even by Anomalous Fire.
But Gu Zheng was deliberately controlling it.
Therefore, the Burning Fire was only incinerating the Evil God attached to the Middle Celestial Tripod!
Of course, it wasn’t the Evil God’s main body, but merely a wisp of its soul.
It couldn’t even be called a clone or an avatar.
This wisp of soul could deal with ordinary people, even those in the Alien Body Realm, with ease.
But someone at the Super Body Realm could resist it, or even suppress it.
Right now, Gu Zheng was using his Domain to envelop it, preventing this wisp of the Evil God’s soul from escaping.
The Domain Power surged within, burning and destroying it.
The Evil God’s soul wisp only had time to let out a piercing shriek before it turned into mist and dissipated.
"Who are you!!"
The shriek, filled with indignation and rage, echoed in Gu Zheng’s ears.
Then, as if it had substance, it transformed into a strand of Anomalous Power and burrowed into Gu Zheng’s Sea of Consciousness!
