97: Chapter 97 The Method of Mortal Self-Imposition Has Arrived; Another Dynasty Is About to Fall

Great Zhou Imperial Dynasty.

Southern Border, Suining Prefecture.

In a remote county under the jurisdiction of Suining Prefecture, a matter of minor significance occurred.

A group of Mortals gathered before the Black Iron Spire in the center of the county and collectively detonated the Mortal Self-Severing Method.

The number was not large, only about three hundred people.

The scale of the detonation was also small. The Spiritual Qi storm only covered a few dozen zhang, cracking a few gaps in the Formation of devilish patterns on the Spire's outer wall.

The two stationed demons of the Qi Refining Middle Stage were scorched, but they did not die.

By the standards of the demons, this was merely a trivial disturbance not worth mentioning.

The Golden Core demon of Suining Prefecture couldn't even be bothered to inquire personally, simply sending a few subordinates at the Foundation Establishment Stage to handle the aftermath.

However, word of this matter reached the ears of Xue Du.

In the southwest corner of Great Zhou, a large frontier city with a population of tens of millions.

This was the place Nascent Soul Demon Chi Yuan had designated for Xue Du to stay.

As a great demon of the Golden Core Great Perfection, although he was not reduced to living on the streets, he could only live under someone else's roof.

Although Nascent Soul Demon Chi Yuan and other Golden Core demons privately mocked him as a "stray dog" that couldn't even suppress Mortals, they did not cut off the supplies for this high-ranking peer.

Relying on the abundant Devilish Qi of Great Zhou, Xue Du finally managed to slowly nurture his Golden Core Great Perfection cultivation back.

The cracks on his devilish body had also healed for the most part. Although some faintly painful dark patterns remained, at least he was no longer like a piece of porcelain ready to shatter at any moment.

His cultivation had returned, but Xue Du's status in the Great Zhou demon circle had plummeted, making him a marginal character.

Until today.

A low-level demon who had fled from Suining Prefecture reported that "small matter" to him tremblingly.

Three hundred Mortals besieged the Spire and collectively detonated.

Two Qi Refining Middle Stage demons were injured.

The Devilish Qi in a radius of a few dozen zhang decreased.

Xue Du listened to the report quietly.

He did not laugh.

On the contrary, a tremor that was almost impossible to suppress crawled up along the spine of his devilish body bit by bit.

"Three hundred people."

Xue Du repeated it in a low voice, deep fear emerging from the depths of his vertical pupils.

"A few dozen zhang in radius."

"Qi Refining Middle Stage, injured."

He was too familiar with this opening.

So familiar that these few words sounded like a funeral bell ringing on his Soul!

He recalled the scene when he had just fled to Great Zhou and knelt before Nascent Soul Demon Chi Yuan, pleading earnestly.

"Lord Chi Yuan, the Mortal Self-Severing Method is extremely terrifying; we must take precautions before it happens!"

What had Nascent Soul Demon Chi Yuan said?

"Great Li is Great Li, and Great Zhou is Great Zhou. Just because you couldn't control your Mortals doesn't mean I can't control mine."

"Do not use your incompetence to insult my Great Zhou."

Xue Du had wanted to retort at the time, but looking at that high and mighty, arrogant face of Nascent Soul Demon Chi Yuan, he swallowed it back.

It was useless to say anything.

Nascent Soul Demon Chi Yuan wouldn't believe it.

Just like himself back then.

Demons who hadn't personally been submerged by that kind of suicidal sea of Mortals would never believe that ants could overturn the heavens.

"You all..."

Xue Du leaned against the cold wall of the stone chamber, his vertical pupils tightly closed, his voice trembling slightly due to extreme repression and fear.

"Exactly the same as I was back then."

"Thinking Mortals are livestock, thinking livestock can't overturn the heavens."

"Thinking that killing a batch will make them obedient, thinking that catching a few leaders will cause the rest to disperse."

"And then?"

Xue Du opened his eyes; in those once ferocious eyes, only bottomless decadence and despair remained at this moment.

"Then you will discover that your slaughter will only become firewood, making that fire burn even more fiercely..."

The low-level demon who had fled from Suining Prefecture huddled in the corner, asking tremblingly.

"Xue Du, then... then what should we do?"

Xue Du was silent for a long time.

"What to do?"

Xue Du raised his hand, looking at the faintly aching dark pattern on his devilish body, like a drowning person who had completely given up struggling.

"The Mortal Self-Severing Method has arrived; another Imperial Dynasty is about to fall."

The tone in which he said this was light, revealing a numbness and decadence after his Dao Heart had been completely crushed by that terrifying power.

As a foreign Golden Core who had lost his territory, he was nothing but a joke in the eyes of Nascent Soul Demon Chi Yuan, so why should he worry?

It was just waiting for death or preparing to flee again.

...The "small matter" in Suining Prefecture was quickly suppressed by the high-level demons of Great Zhou.

Nascent Soul Demon Chi Yuan didn't even inquire personally.

A mere disturbance of three hundred Mortals, was it worthy of alarming the Nascent Soul Stage?

He only ordered his subordinate Golden Core demons to strengthen control and suppress it strictly.

It was exactly the same as what Xue Du had said to Zhao Chengqian back then.

But just like everything that had happened in Great Li, they never learned their lesson.

Because the incantation had already spread!

The three hundred people in Suining Prefecture were just the first spark to emerge.

On the border line of Great Zhou's Southern Border, the merchants, refugees, fishermen, and beggars who had flowed in from Great Li had brought the incantation into the land of Great Zhou as early as two or three years ago.

That incantation, less than a hundred words, catchy, and unforgettable, quietly took root among the bottom-tier Mortals of Great Zhou like a seed.

After Suining Prefecture, it was Linfang City.

After Linfang City, it was Yuejiang Prefecture.

After Yuejiang Prefecture.

In the next half year, more than a dozen prefectures and counties in Great Zhou's Southern Border saw incidents of Mortals gathering and detonating appearing one after another.

The scale ranged from a few hundred to several thousand, and the damage caused varied from "scratching the skin" to "directly burning to death Qi Refining Stage demons."

The high-level demons of Great Zhou finally began to pay attention.

Nascent Soul Demon Chi Yuan convened an emergency meeting of all Golden Core demons in the territory.

The content of the meeting was only one thing: how to completely extinguish the spread of the Mortal Self-Severing Method in Great Zhou.

They discussed for three days and three nights, finally coming up with a plan.

Great purges, blockades, prohibitions, collective punishment, reporting... exactly the same as what Xue Du had done in Great Li.

Xue Du was not invited to attend that meeting.

He only heard of Nascent Soul Demon Chi Yuan's plan from the mouth of that low-level demon afterwards.

After listening, Xue Du leaned against the wall of the stone chamber and miserably closed his vertical pupils.

He had no other thoughts, only one idea:

"It is time to find another place to lie down..."