46: Saints weep blood, gods and demons are born

Night.

Tianyong City, outside the west gate, refugee camp.

This place was less a camp and more a gigantic junkyard.

The air was a mix of the stench of feces, the putrid smell of rotting wounds, and a sour odor of despair after fermentation.

Because of the war, countless displaced Mortals flocked to the capital with their families.

But the city gates were tightly shut.

They were blocked outside, like a herd of abandoned livestock.

An old man with a broken leg leaned against a hovel, his eyes hollow as he stared at the moon in the sky, unconsciously humming a folk tune from his hometown.

A young mother held a small, already cold body in her arms, neither crying nor making a fuss; she just held him.

Her husband had been conscripted as a laborer and died under the iron hooves of Meng Tian's army.

Jiang Chen walked through this Hell on Earth.

The coarse linen clothes on him were cleaner than those of the most presentable person here.

He was like a drop of clear water falling into an inkwell, appearing completely out of place.

No one noticed him.

Everyone's senses were already consumed by hunger, pain, and numbness.

The Emperor's imperial decree meant nothing to them.

Whether it was the Imperial Preceptor or the General, in their eyes, they were all Yama Kings come to claim their lives.

Jiang Chen stopped in a corner.

He squatted down, looking at a little girl, about seven or eight years old.

The girl was very thin, her cheeks sunken, and her large eyes were filled with terror and wariness.

In her arms, she clutched half a piece of moldy biscuit.

That was all her worldly possessions.

Jiang Chen didn't speak.

He just extended a finger.

Heart of Beast Mastery activated.

This time, he wasn't connecting to the Soul of some Yao Beast.

But to one, and then another, human on the verge of collapse.

Buzz—

An invisible ripple, centered on Jiang Chen, instantly covered the entire refugee camp.

No language.

No commands.

Only the purest, Soul-level resonance.

Jiang Chen turned his Soul into a mirror.

A magic mirror that could reflect and amplify all emotions.

He reflected the old man's sorrow.

Reflected the mother's deathly stillness.

Reflected this little girl's fear.

Then, he shared these emotions with everyone.

In an instant.

The old man humming the tune began to tremble violently; he seemed to see his leg crushed by a warhorse.

Tears, for the first time, welled up in the hollow eyes of the mother holding the dead infant, followed by a silent, overwhelming hatred.

The little girl holding half a biscuit screamed, dropped the biscuit, and clutched her hair with both hands as if to tear herself apart.

Pain!

Boundless pain!

Hatred!

Hatred that burned everything!

Hatred for the high and mighty Imperial Preceptor!

Hatred for the General who led his army south!

Hatred for this damned world that had shattered their homes and destroyed their lives!

Jiang Chen's Heart of Beast Mastery could originally only perform basic communication and deterrence.

But under the immense negative energy of the Undying Demonic Heart, it mutated.

It became a 'plague' that could ignite the Soul and amplify emotions.

This 'popular resentment', formed by the despair and hatred of tens of thousands of refugees, amplified a hundredfold, was no longer an invisible current.

It transformed into a visible, viscous, oil-like black torrent!

This black torrent surged into the sky, not towards the imperial palace, nor towards the northern border.

It flowed upstream.

In a manner that defied all Laws, it slammed fiercely into the Praying Immortal Tower, which was extracting the national Luck!

Boom!!!

A deafening roar, not of the Mortal realm, exploded deep within everyone's Souls!

At the top of the Praying Immortal Tower.

Wei Shu, who was preparing to accept the fate of being 'imprisoned in the Heavenly Dungeon' to preserve the Great Xia Dynasty's last Origin Qi, was struck as if by lightning.

He violently spat out a mouthful of blood.

Not golden.

It was bright red, laced with countless black threads, the blood of a Mortal.

The 'Human Dao Dragon Robe' on him, which had stopped crumbling, couldn't withstand even a single breath under the impact of this pure, ultimate 'popular resentment'.

Crash—

Like the finest porcelain smashed by a hammer.

That sage's robe, formed by billions of popular wishes and endless national Luck, impervious to Myriad Laws, shattered with a resounding crack!

It transformed into golden specks of light filling the sky, dissipating into the air.

Wei Shu fell from 'Sage' to Mortal.

Cold System notifications frantically scrolled across Jiang Chen's mind.

[Warning! 'Heavenly Dao-Grade' Fate Anchor is collapsing!]

[Fate Reversal has been activated! Beginning to strip!]

[Absorbing overflowing 'Power of Fate'...]

['Formless Life Essence' reserves have greatly increased!]

Vast, golden 'Literary Dao Luck', mixed with countless fragments of Laws concerning 'order', 'enlightenment', and 'three cardinal guides and five constant virtues', surged out from Wei Shu's body like a breached river.

Their goal was to return to Heaven and Earth.

But halfway, a greedy, eternally insatiable black hole appeared.

Jiang Chen's Myriad Laws Dao Body let out a thirsty shriek at this moment!

With Array Dao Heavenly Heart as its framework, Hundred Herb Spirit Body as its flesh and blood, and Sword Dao Enlightenment as its Edge... this embryonic Dao Body finally awaited its last, and most crucial, piece of the puzzle.

—'Human Dao Law'!

Boom!

Jiang Chen's body seemed to transform into a furnace.

Massive amounts of 'Human Dao Dragon Qi' and 'Literary Dao Luck' were frantically devoured, refined, and absorbed by him.

His Myriad Laws Dao Body was completing, reshaping, and transforming at a terrifying speed!

[Core talent detected... stripping successful!]

[Congratulations, Host, you have obtained the talent: Words Become Law (Incomplete)!]

[Words Become Law (Incomplete)] Your words have been endowed with a partial authority of 'Human Dao Law'. Within a certain range, you can use words to define and distort some physical rules and energy forms. The intensity of the effect depends on the consumption of 'Formless Life Essence'.

More importantly, it was the transformation of his body!

[Warning! Host's Foundation has undergone a qualitative change!]

['Myriad Laws Dao Body (Embryonic)'] has been completed!

[Evolving into... Divine Demon Body (Initial Stage)!]

[Divine Demon Body (Initial Stage)]: Your existence has initially transcended Law. You no longer need to 'simulate' or 'utilize' rules. Within your Domain, you are the rules!

Jiang Chen slowly stood up.

The world was different.

He could feel the 'world's rejection', viscous as a quagmire in the air, receding.

No, not receding.

It was his Divine Demon Body actively rejecting the Laws of this world!

He had become an independent, self-contained 'rule BUG' in this world.

He stretched out his hand.

And softly spoke a sentence.

"Let there be light."

The air above his palm twisted slightly.

A ray of light, more luminous than moonlight, warmer than sunlight, appeared out of thin air, illuminating the terrified little face before him.

Words become Law!

This was the power of a Divine Demon Body!

However, at the very moment Jiang Chen completed his transformation.

The sky changed.

The cloudless night sky, without warning, was tinged with a strange, blood-red hue.

An indescribable, ultimate wrath and will of destruction, roared down from the Nine Heavens!

That was not the emotion of any living being.

That was the Heavenly Dao itself.

It was the underlying logic of this 'cage world' unleashing its most furious roar!

A blood-colored lightning bolt.

No thunderclouds, no electric flashes.

It just appeared abruptly above Tianyong City, disregarding all spatial and Law distances, locking onto the small figure standing in the refugee camp.

Then, it struck down!

Heavenly Punishment!