These words were truly enlightening.
All the villagers stood there dazed.
The child who had claimed the goddess was a dog was even more moved, his eyes brimming with tears. So that little dog was also an incarnation of the goddess—the goddess had saved them with her own hands!
"The master... the master is right."
"It was our own narrow-mindedness."
"The goddess is merciful! The goddess has a thousand faces!"
"No matter what the goddess looks like, we believe!"
"From now on, in my home, beneath the tablet of the Bone God, I will offer five more tablets! One for the long-eared one, the one with heterochromia, the bald one, the masked one, and even that dog! I will worship them all!"
Watching the villagers below prostrate themselves as their faith values skyrocketed, Ku Chan was inwardly overjoyed. On the surface, however, he maintained a profound and enigmatic smile, hiding his merit and fame deep within.
This professional capability was top-notch.
Meanwhile, on a high slope in the distance, Su Xue stood behind Chen Zhou with a look of utter bewilderment.
She seemed to have heard something very strange just now.
"My Lord..." Su Xue pointed hesitantly toward the crowd. "Do such remarks not require proper guidance?"
Chen Zhou sat on a block of ice-rock, a hint of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"This is faith, Su Xue."
Chen Zhou looked out over the land that was beginning to show signs of life and chuckled.
"The common people do not care who you are; they only care about who allows them to survive."
"As long as they can live, forget about being worshipped as a dog—even if you were a stone, they would still kowtow to you."
"Furthermore, although that old brat Ku Chan speaks absolute nonsense, he wasn't wrong about one thing."
Chen Zhou turned back, glancing at Huo Dou, who was lying at his feet gnawing on snow wolf meat, then at Poison-Wing in the distance, who was carrying two bloody wolf heads.
"In this chaotic world, those who can save people—be they human, ghost, or beast—deserve such a bow."
Su Xue nodded earnestly.
Chen Zhou stood up and brushed the snowflakes from his hem.
The wind of the Northern Region was no longer so piercingly cold.
Wu Hai's branch construction was in full swing. The swarm of insects that Piao had transformed into was frantically devouring the frozen soil and death qi beneath the surface. Su Xue's Myriad Herbs Life-Death Realm was slowly reversing the cycle of life and death, while Poison-Wing and the Plague Rat were conducting the final sweep across the ice plains.
The Wolf Court was destroyed, and the Ksitigarbha of Great Vows was dead.
This former land of death now bore the brand of Chen Zhou.
"Continue to do what you have yet to finish. This deity shall wait for your return in the City of the Wrongfully Dead."
"Yes, My Lord."
Chen Zhou departed, leaving behind an absurd legend in the Northern Region regarding the Thousand-Faced Goddess under the Bone God, which would be passed down for generations.
After crossing a thousand mountains, Chen Zhou returned to the City of the Wrongfully Dead alone.
As soon as Chen Zhou stepped out of the ghost domain,
"We welcome the Lord God back to the city!"
At the city gate, Hong Ling was dressed in red as bright as fire, and Shitou could hardly contain his excitement.
Behind them stood a massive crowd of the city's residents. Holding white banners as if welcoming a triumphant general, they all strained to squeeze out their most brilliant smiles.
"My Lord!" Shitou waved his hand excitedly. "We’ve prepared a surprise for you!"
An ominous premonition welled up in Chen Zhou's heart. "...What surprise?"
The words had barely left his mouth when the level ground on both sides of the city gate suddenly churned, as if something was about to break through the soil.
Petals of blood-red flowers emerged from the earth. In the blink of an eye, the city gate was covered in a field of equinox flowers, as brilliant as fresh blood.
The sea of flowers swayed in the wind, emitting a blurring fragrance.
Immediately after, the soil within the sea of flowers loosened again, and one decayed palm after another suddenly reached toward the sky.
A group of zombies crawled out from the flower sea with perfectly synchronized movements.
They were all the zombie corpse guards refined by the elders of the Corpse Soul Sect.
Under Shitou's command, they quickly lined up into two columns, welcoming the deity back to his territory like an honor guard.
Chen Zhou: "..."
He stood in place, staring at the grand avenue composed of equinox flowers and zombies, momentarily at a loss for words.
After a long silence, he could only squeeze out a dry sentence: "...There was no need for such a grand display."
Hong Ling covered her mouth and chuckled, stepping forward with a graceful bow.
"Please do not blame us, My Lord. Shitou's intentions were pure."
"You went on an expedition to the Northern Region, bringing hope and faith to all living beings. Returning after such a great victory naturally calls for some celebration."
Chen Zhou waved his hand, signaling the corpse guards to disperse quickly; he didn't want to look at this scene for long.
He then asked as he walked into the city, "How has the city been during my absence?"
Hong Ling followed beside Chen Zhou, reporting with clear logic.
"Reporting to My Lord, all is well."
"Those devout believers Ku Chan sent from Lantao City have all been properly settled."
"Their faith in you is extremely deep, and they have adapted well to the environment of the City of the Wrongfully Dead. They get along pleasantly with everyone and have already joined the labor for city construction and development."
"Lu Cheng is also proceeding with the urban expansion work."
"According to My Lord's plans, we have opened a new area in the west of the city specifically for the construction of new residential zones and workshops."
At this point, Hong Ling paused, a hint of satisfaction appearing on her face. "Additionally, Seven Kills and the others who came from the human pens in the Southern Region have made great progress."
"Oh?" Chen Zhou raised an eyebrow. "How so?"
"They have good comprehension," Hong Ling explained. "The schoolteachers only taught them a few times before they learned to read and speak. They can even understand complex instructions now."
"Seeing how quickly they learned, I dispatched a group of veteran citizens to the Southern Region to lead them in construction."
"The foundation for the sub-city there has already been laid. Chaiwang City has been rebuilt. Poison Pheasant has gone there to oversee the defense, and the city's name has been changed to Golden Chicken Mountain."
"Once that is finished, they will also go to the Northern Region to help. We plan to build a new city there, tentatively named Evil Dog Ridge. What do you think, My Lord?"
Chen Zhou nodded. "You’ve done well."
Hong Ling felt a weight lift from her heart. As long as she could share her Lord's burdens, it made the several consecutive nights of sleeplessness and planning worth it.
But she then seemed to remember something, and her expression turned slightly odd.
"What is it?" Chen Zhou noticed her change.
Hong Ling hesitated for a moment before saying, "There are two more matters I am uncertain about, and I was waiting for My Lord to decide."
"Speak."
"The first matter concerns the Gathering Fortune Pavilion."
Hong Ling pointed to the spiritual pavilion in the center of the city.
"A few days ago, several immortal cranes suddenly flew in from the sky and landed in the courtyard of the Gathering Fortune Pavilion."
"I saw that their bodies were flowing with spiritual rhythm and they did not seem like ordinary creatures. Moreover, the unaging pine doesn't seem to reject them; they get along quite harmoniously."
"I did not dare to act on my own initiative."
Chen Zhou thought for a moment. "Immortal cranes?"
Was it another old friend of the unaging pine?
"Auspicious beasts arriving of their own accord is quite interesting. It's not the first time, after all. What is the other matter?"
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