Chapter 64: Chapter 64: I Am the Master of the Heroic God
A Flawless Seed Source was important, but he wasn’t the only way to get one. There would be other opportunities in the future.
Pleasing the Mighty God, however, was the mission of the Night Woman Tribe!
Besides, this outsider had bewitched Firefly’s heart. Only by sacrificing him could Firefly come to her senses and become a worthy successor as chieftain.
Redstone had her plan figured out. Although she didn’t know where this man came from, the Mighty God also seemed interested in him.
Once this man was sacrificed, the Night Woman Tribe would surely gain the Mighty God’s favor, and their territory would expand.
"Mighty God! Creator of space!"
"Mighty God! King of creation!"
"Mighty God! Divine King of the Iron Country!"
A group of Night Women followed on either side of the shield machine, their bodies glowing as they swayed their hips and cheered, their faces filled with fanaticism.
Their worship of the Mighty God was etched into their very bones; they even took pride in offering sacrifices to him.
In the deep, dark underground spaces of the Iron Country, everything was cold and meaningless. But the Mighty God made their lives different from those of other tribes, giving them a higher, metaphysical purpose.
It made them feel alive.
The shield machine RUMBLED forward under Redstone’s guidance, soon arriving between two giant totem poles, right in front of Shen Feng.
Hanging from the two totem poles were withered bones and human limbs, clearly the remains of previous sacrifices and offerings.
These were all men the Night Woman clan had captured from various parts of the Iron Country. After they were used up, they became offerings.
To the Night Woman Tribe, this was a perfectly ordinary matter, and it was one of the reasons the outside tribes feared them.
Having mastered the sacrificial rites for the Mighty God, the weapons of light, and those prehistoric tools, the Night Woman Tribe was the strongest ruler in the Iron Country.
"Stop!"
Firefly used a small personal dagger to cut her ropes. Breaking free, she snatched a confiscated submachine gun and blocked the path between the Night Women and Shen Feng.
Her eyes were filled with confusion and anger, and deeper still, a profound sorrow.
She had left this place because she yearned for the sky and the earth.
She only wanted to pursue freedom, even if it meant dying outside. She had never imagined she would one day return, and certainly not like this.
"I’m holding a prehistoric Holy Spear! If anyone takes another step, I swear I’ll kill her!"
Firefly shouted, looking at her mother, Redstone, her eyes filled with despair.
’Don’t come any closer!’
Firefly’s words startled the Night Women, who couldn’t help but stop and look over at her.
A gun.
’Is that the Holy Spear in her hand?’
It was said that the Night Woman Tribe once possessed a few Holy Spears, but they had all been ruined by the humid environment of the Iron Country.
"Firefly, sacrificing one’s life to the Mighty God is a supreme honor. This man will only be taken by the Mighty God back to the prehistoric Heaven. Why are you stopping this?"
a Night Woman asked in confusion.
Not everyone was qualified to be a sacrifice. Even if they wanted to offer themselves, they couldn’t without Chieftain Redstone’s approval.
"Firefly, are you going to be disrespectful to our god?" Redstone’s face was grim as she looked at her daughter and scolded her loudly.
Firefly pressed her lips together and said with a solemn expression:
"No! It’s not a Divine Spirit! It’s just a machine, a lifeless machine! There are no Divine Spirits in this world, only the creations of humans from a past civilization, elevated to godhood by the people of a forgotten one!"
These were all things Shen Feng had told her. At the time, she had been confused and didn’t really understand, but she had come to understand a great deal in recent days.
’How could they sacrifice a person’s life—let alone Shen Feng’s life—for an illusory legend!’
Redstone watched Firefly with a blank expression, but a flash of pain crossed her eyes. She wasn’t made of stone; it was just that many things were not so simple.
She spread her hands and walked slowly toward Firefly, stopping right in front of her daughter, less than a centimeter from the gun’s muzzle. Her expression was calm as she raised a hand to smooth Firefly’s messy bangs.
"Mother..." Firefly’s voice trembled, but her gaze remained resolute.
’Shen Feng is here to save the entire world. I absolutely cannot let him be sacrificed here. Not even by my mother!’
Redstone sighed and whispered in Firefly’s ear:
"The sacrifices are useless. I’ve known that for a long time... Even if the Mighty God really is a Divine Spirit, it’s nothing more than a Divine Beast that our Night Woman clan has tamed..."
As soon as she said this, Firefly’s eyes widened. She stared at her mother in disbelief, hardly able to accept that these words had come from her extremely devout mother.
"It’s just that space and food in the Iron Country are limited, and peaceful life leads to constant population growth. Culling the population through inter-tribal warfare is far from enough."
Redstone spoke as if she were telling someone else’s story.
"You will be chieftain one day, and you need to understand these things sooner or later. This man... his words are too dangerous. If everyone started fantasizing about searching for the tracks of the Great God Jingwei, it would only bring utter catastrophe to the Iron Country. You have no idea how terrifying those old Divine Spirits are!"
"His appearance also challenges the authority of the Night Woman clan in the Iron Country and will destabilize our position."
"Forget him. If you like, I can have the tribe’s hunting party accompany you on a marriage hunt. Whoever you want, however many you want..."
Redstone looked directly into Firefly’s eyes, her gaze filled with tenderness.
Firefly’s expression was panicked as she shouted, "No, it’s not like that! Shen Feng, he..."
Redstone’s eyes suddenly emitted a blinding light, instantly washing Firefly’s vision in a sea of white. At the same time, Redstone’s hands shot out like lightning, grabbing Firefly’s gun hand and snatching the submachine gun away!
By the time Firefly’s vision cleared, she was already pinned firmly to the ground by several Night Women, completely unable to struggle!
Redstone caressed the submachine gun in her hands. Without a single glance at Firefly, she said with a blank expression, "Continue the sacrifice!"
With that, she waved the controller in her hand, and the shield machine’s cutter head immediately began to RUMBLE and spin again.
"Mother!" Firefly screamed, but a wad of dry moss was immediately shoved into her mouth, silencing her.
Soon, the procession of Night Women had swarmed around the shield machine and arrived before Shen Feng.
A group of Night Women simultaneously began the sacrificial dance of fertility—alluring and wild, crude and flamboyant.
Redstone waved the controller, and the shield machine let out a series of roars like a wild beast. Its massive, sharp cutter head spun as it bored down on Shen Feng.
Once it touched him, his body would be ground to smithereens!
"Shen Feng!" Firefly spat out the moss in her mouth and screamed, her eyes bloodshot. She desperately tried to emit light to burn through her ropes, but it was no use.
The Night Women watched on, some with fanatical expressions, others with blank faces, all waiting for the Mighty God to enjoy its offering.
Just then, Shen Feng abruptly looked at the shield machine, now less than a meter away, and said calmly:
"Stop."
Before the astonished eyes of the Night Women, the roaring, advancing shield machine came to a sudden halt.
"Untie me."
Shen Feng said next.
The shield machine’s giant cutter head swiveled nimbly and sliced through the ropes binding him.
"Bow."
The shield machine immediately plunged its drill into the dirt. After Shen Feng stepped onto its back, it turned its body, and its several eye-like probes flickered with light as they stared at the dumbfounded Night Women.
Shen Feng stood upon the shield machine’s back, looking down indifferently at the assembled Night Women. The speaker on his chest boomed, releasing a voice like thunder:
"I am the Master of the Heroic God!"
