Chapter Ninety-Four: Foundations

In the south, as time slowly passed, the once chaotic Northern Lands gradually began to settle into calm.

Yet as the two great powers drew ever closer to one another, conflict, though restrained by both sides from erupting into a full-scale war, never ceased in smaller skirmishes.

Under the constant probing of the formidable King Barret of Ingdell, priests and knights from both sides fought in bitter array. Flecks of blood slowly appeared along the border where the two realms met, sending ripples through a northern land that was, in the larger sense, growing quiet.

And with these clashes came misfortune for the merchants who had once traveled freely between the kingdoms. In the south, the Duchy of Ingdell suffered from disorderly law and order; moreover, it was an old and powerful duchy, and although its nobles and lords had gathered beneath King Barret’s banner, they still retained a degree of independence. Thus, from time to time, bands of rogue soldiers and brigands rose up, stripping passing caravans bare.

And yet, even in such an environment, many still crossed the Northern Lands, treating the dangers that ordinary men feared as if they were level ground, and made their way south.

...

On a desolate stretch of wilderness, Chen Ming gazed at the battlefield before him, a faint, ghostly light in his eyes.

Within his sight, strange phenomena were gradually surfacing across the field. One by one, faint spirit forms roared into being, slowly gathering shape and taking on the appearance they had possessed in life.

If one looked closely into their souls, one could see fierce-faced warriors howling where they stood—clearly the battle spirits of the slain.

And where battle spirits appeared, it meant the land before him had indeed been a battlefield, and that a war had been fought not long ago.

Chen Ming watched silently as these battle spirits slowly solidified, observing the changes that followed.

As the spirits gathered together with furious roars, wisps of black aura began to emerge around them, gradually seeping into their forms. Their once-faint souls grew denser, as though undergoing some peculiar transformation.

This was corruption. It was also the herald of their becoming evil spirits.

Ordinarily, in a healthy world, even battle spirits, after death, would at most be somewhat denser than ordinary souls, allowing them to linger a little longer before being erased by the laws of the world and becoming nourishment for it. But in a world corroded by the immortal malice of the demon gods, they would instead be eaten away by the ever-present demonic aura around them and slowly transformed into a kind of malign spirit.

In one sense, this too was a form of survival, lasting longer than before. But for the world itself, it was another matter entirely, bringing with it all manner of adverse effects.

Seeing the battle spirits before him gradually tainted, Chen Ming knew that if he did not intervene, then within a few days this place would be turned by the evil spirits born from the dead into a cursed land, and might even escalate into a mass assault upon the nearby villages.

This was the origin of the ancient legends of evil spirits in this world, especially in times of chaos, when they became all the more dangerous and uncanny.

Yet faced with these dreadful spirits, Adis remained unmoved. With a light sweep of his arm, a radiance of divinity slowly appeared, gathering little by little into a solid, unmistakable domain that enveloped the surrounding area.

At once, countless evil spirits let out shrieks.

But amid the chorus of shrieking, there were also faint sounds of moaning, as if in release, and these were all the more jarring.

Chen Ming turned to look. Within the spirits, under the cover of the divine domain, tiny points of pale-white light from faith began to glow. Weak radiance flickered over the solidified forms of the battle spirits, and their eyes gradually cleared.

These were his believers. Under the stimulus of his pure divine light, the corruption they had suffered was instantly driven away, and their minds were restored.

Even their spirits seemed to become a little more translucent and crystal-clear, as though protected by some power and beginning to grow extraordinary.

With another wave of his hand, Chen Ming gathered those souls up, sealing them directly so that they might sleep for the time being.

Having done this, he immediately felt his true spirit lighten, as though, in some indistinct way, his connection with this world had become a little closer.

He raised his head and looked to the heavens.

“It is almost over.”

During this period, Chen Ming had been walking ceaselessly across the battlefields where the great war had once raged, cleansing the fallen soldiers and driving away the evil spirits, all the way to this point.

“However, this place seems to be quite close to the south already,” he thought, looking toward the south and sensing that faint, unseen current of destiny.

With that in mind, he followed the aura and strode directly southward.

Before long, the shadow of a city began to emerge in his field of vision.

He lifted his gaze toward the front.

Upon the broad city walls, squads of guards and knights patrolled without pause, while caravans and travelers were subjected to inspection at the gates before being allowed inside one after another.

Yet unlike other places, Chen Ming could not sense within this city the unique aura of the ancestral god belonging to an individual city-state. Instead, only a vast and somewhat familiar presence quietly enveloped it.

Sensing this, Chen Ming could not help but let out a cold laugh.

“So it has already been devoured by the ancestral god of Ingdell?”

Ancestral gods arose from worship; their power was granted through blood sacrifice rather than born of themselves, and thus their abilities shared similar qualities and could be strengthened by devouring one another.

And from the look of this city, it was obvious that the ancestral god once worshiped by the city-state had been swallowed up by the ancestral god of Ingdell and vanished.

Yet as he sensed the subtle distinctions within it, Chen Ming only sneered faintly.

“Indeed, the ignorant are fearless. Though the power gained from blood sacrifice is similar and can be absorbed, it still depends on one’s foundation.”

“These so-called ancestral gods, though called gods, are in truth mostly the souls of ordinary mortals who lived and died, then endured through the worship of later generations. In the long years that followed, blood sacrifice could strengthen their power, but it could not alter their foundations. Merely a group of common mortals who, in life, had only reached the second or third tier, and who were then elevated so easily to the fourth or even fifth tier—how could there be no hidden danger?”

He looked upward in silence, thoughts turning slowly in his mind.

“In truth, these beings who are called ancestral gods after death, and who attain the fourth tier, were most likely already at the third tier in life. After prolonged transformation through blood sacrifice, reaching the fourth tier would already be exceedingly difficult, let alone the even harder fifth.”

“For the ancestral god of Ingdell to have reached such a level, aside from devouring goodness knows how many other ancestral gods, there must also be the protection of the world’s rank and the infusion of source power.”

“Without that, with such shallow foundations, after devouring so many ancestral gods, he would likely have long since been unable to suppress the power and would have burst apart from within.”

He looked toward a fragment of starlight suspended high in the unseen void, and the source power continuously descending from it, and thought thus in his heart.

After all, the ancestral god and the city-state were one. The rank of the Duchy of Ingdell was indeed chiefly bestowed upon King Barret, but as the ancestral god of a city-state, he naturally would also receive protection and be endowed with source power.

“Even so, it must still be exceedingly precarious, liable to fall back at any moment. His foundation has already been overdrawn; he can no longer advance even a single step further.”

As he sensed the gradual stirring of the blood-red slaughter divinity within his body, his thoughts continued to flow.

Outside him, as though perceiving some presence, the originally pale divine light gradually acquired a trace of crimson, lending it a strangely alluring hue.