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Chapter 7: Facing the Gods
***Edited by Kronost***
Shen Yi took a deep breath, standing on the second floor.
In the past few days, the summoning had finally stopped, and the trembling did not appear. He thought things had eased somehow.
But he got called again tonight.
Passing through the gray mist, Shen Yi found him in a beautifully decorated, simple, and elegant villa.
Many people were kneeling in the first-floor lobby, obviously terrified of him. From the summoning words, one could tell that these people were believers of the Lord of Ashes.
“Here we go again ......”
The gravity behind him remains, and he knows that he only needs to hold on for ten minutes.
Once again, he noticed the little silver-haired girl. Fortunately, the little girl was still alive.
‘Was this little girl promoted from a sacrifice to a believer?‘ It seems the ‘oracle’ he had issued was effective.
The chief priest trembled with fright, and his mind became chaotic. He didn’t know what to do. It had been hundreds of years since he had first presided over the rituals of the Order, and he had read the ancient texts about the Lord of Ashes. But it was the first time he had seen the God of his faith.
He took a deep breath, tried to calm his mind. Still prostrated on the ground, he raised his hands.
“The Great Lord of Ashes, we offer you the secret treasure of the shadows, the face of infinite changes.”
Even though he was the high priest of the Lord of Ashes, he was terrified at the moment. He even thought that the Lord of Ashes should receive the sacrifice and leave fast.
And the grace of god ...... Nothing is as important as life.
He knew very well that the Lord of Ashes was the god of endless disasters, that his mere existence was the source of destruction.
Standing on the villa’s second floor, Shen Yi heard the chief priest’s words.
Instead of answering, he surreptitiously speculated the man dressed in a silky black robe. Judging from his position and speech, he seems to be the priest presiding over the ceremony.
At the same time, he also noticed the mask placed on the altar.
The almost pure white tear-eye mask had a mysterious and ancient charm that caught his attention. It must be their new sacrifice to the Lord of Ashes.
He must accept the sacrifices to pretend to be the Lord of Ashes and not expose his pretense. The consequences, once they discover it, will be unimaginable.
Before being summoned, he had thought about the worst possibility- the moment he was summoned; he was immediately pinned to the ground by the cultists, tied up and unloaded.
The current situation was much better than he had imagined. These cultists looked terrified.
Shen Yi had to agree it relieved him that the heretics would accept the setting that the Lord of Ashes should appear as a human form.
‘As long as you stay firm and don’t break the rules, it’s safe to fool around.’
He stayed on the second floor and did not go down. One, he knew that keeping a distance was very important to the mystery. Two, he did not want to get close to the cultists.
He had thought about it a long time ago. And when he was not questioned after being summoned, he just followed what the summoners wanted.
Shen Yi calmly said, “Foolish mortals, I accept your sacrifices.”
The oracle of the Lord of Ashes, an inhuman voice like a flame, appeared in everyone’s minds, who were kneeling on the ground. Although it was not a human language, everyone could understand the meaning.
As soon as he finished speaking, he was thinking about how to take away the sacrifice. But before he finished thinking about it, the pure white tear-eye mask had floated automatically, and it flew straight towards him in the air and fell into his hands.
‘What happened?’
Shen Yi stared at the mask that flew into his hands, a little puzzled. Could it be that the mask could fly by itself?
.........
The people saw the relic mask, the sacrifice, was picked up by a black flame wing of the Lord of Ashes.
The senior priest breathed a sigh of relief that the Lord of Ashes accepted their sacrifice. He knelt for a while but found that the Lord of Ashes had not left.
He suddenly understood.
The Lord of Ashes has only descended a few times in thousands of years. As long as he descends, something is bound to happen. So obviously, he will also do something this time.
‘Could it be that he wants to destroy this city? Or even the whole Nolan? Or is there a plan to disrupt the world?’
The more he thought about it, the more frightened he became. But he bit his tongue and forced his mouth to speak.
“Infinite disaster, the source of destruction, the Lord of Ashes who annihilated the stars. Descend your divine decree and let the world run as you wish.”
Shen Yi nodded lightly. ‘Hey, can’t you let me go with the sacrifice? There are still two minutes left!’
‘In that case, let’s just send out an oracle at will. It will be best to pick an oracle that is difficult to complete without harming others.’
Suddenly, a crisp childish voice interrupted the conversation.
“Infinite disaster, the source of destruction, the Lord of Ashes who annihilated the stars.”
“I want you to know that they are not your devout believers, but liars... Not only are they approaching you for benefits, but they also violated your oracle without authorization.”
Aina, who knelt behind the crowd, suddenly said something shocking.
Everyone around her and the members of the Order looked at her, aghast. Incredulous at her words and actions.
“What nonsense?” Someone tried to stop it, but they didn’t dare to do anything rash at all under the situation of God’s descent.
The little girl bit her lip and didn’t lower her head this time.
“Great Lord of Ashes, what I said is true.”
An individual’s life often had many turning points. But to grasp the key opportunity, one needs to be strong enough or even be reckless.
Aina felt a scorching heat in her chest, and the heat rushed upwards, and she spat out a mouthful of blood, and red bloodlines flowed out continuously in her eyes and nose.
It was the aftereffect of the operation. She hasn’t fully recovered yet. The energy of burning blood is too potent.
“Woo...”
‘Am I dying?’ In fact, Aina was frightened, and her heartbeat drummed crazily against her ribcage. She stiffened. If she had a choice, she wouldn’t do it again.
But she no longer has any expectations for the future. There was only a burning rage in her heart that made her desperate to step forward. Even if the god punished her, or even killed her, or burned her to ashes. She didn’t care anymore. All her life she obeyed the Order and never had the power to choose for herself. But now, she stood up for herself.
It wasn’t that she wanted to make the greedy adults of the Order pay. But she didn’t want the children of the orphanage ...... to have no future like her.
“What are you talking about?”
The Senior Priest was surprised. He turned his head and stared at Aina with rage that almost tore her to pieces.
‘Do you think that all this talk is going to help?’
He studied mysticism, and one thing he knows is that the Lord of Ashes doesn’t care about human piety!
The gods of the world treat their followers in a thousand different ways, just like humans in a good or bad mood. But there are a few gods who care about the believers’ thoughts.
‘Loyal or not?’
‘The concept of humanization does not exist in the indescribable gods of the world, especially in the Lord of Ashes.’ The senior priest thought so, and he believed it.
After all, no one knows the Lord of Ashes better than him!
......
Shen Yi could clearly see the little girl on the second floor. The bright red blood was so clear, and the painful expression was heartfelt.
He suddenly understood.
It turned out that the false oracle had little effect on her, and she was treated inhumanely afterward. ‘There’s one last-minute where I can get a little more aggressive.’
He suppressed his anger and said indifferently, “Breach my oracle...you will be punished accordingly.”
The scorching voice turned into a concept that humans could understand and entered everyone’s mind. Anger made the voice more powerful. It penetrated people’s brains like cast iron. The cultists present were trembling violently, and there was a sudden pain in their minds, and they couldn’t bear the force and fell to the ground.
The senior priest knelt on the ground blankly.
‘I... made the biggest mistake.’
‘I was too arrogant; trying to understand the gods of the world with human ideas.