Chen Zhou recalled the confrontation with that eyeball Judge in the provincial palace, specifically a sentence it had roared:
"This seat is a creation of the Vermilion Judgment..."
The confusion in Chen Zhou's heart grew deeper.
Who was the Vermilion Judgment?
Was he the one who had suppressed the copper poison in Gloomlight Province?
Kushi County's Soul-Suppressing Tower was guarded by the Corpse Soul Sect, who had paid a considerable price to suppress it, yet they still couldn't halt the spread of the copper poison.
Kushi County had nearly been destroyed because of it.
The other Soul-Suppressing Towers connected via the Living Dead Secret Realm had long since turned the surrounding thousand miles into a copper-cast hell where no living thing could exist.
However, regarding the numerous Soul-Suppressing Towers in Gloomlight Province—whether it was the one within Ku Chan that Chen Zhou had personally peeled open or the several that Piao had cleared alone—there had been no significant activity for five hundred years.
Even without anyone to guard or suppress them, the copper poison had not spread.
Was it all because of the Vermilion Judgment?
He had accepted the offerings, so he had helped suppress the copper poison?
Before Chen Zhou could think further, a rift opened in the night sky directly above the Altar of Heaven, and a smear of vermilion seeped through.
A grand and indifferent voice descended with a boom.
"The Golden Buddha is a supreme treasure of heaven and earth. Its movements and traces are such that even the Central Province's Sky-Monitoring cannot..."
The voice cut off halfway.
It was abrupt, as if it had been forcibly silenced by something.
The vermilion sky fluctuated violently, and faint, angry rumbles could be heard.
After a long while, the fluctuations finally subsided.
The voice rang out again, sounding even more indifferent than before, even carrying a hint of irritation.
"Though the Central Province is..."
The voice hitched again, as if certain words could not be successfully transmitted.
"...it is separated from Gloomlight Province by a boundary barrier."
This time, the sentence was finally completed.
"Before the boundary is broken, it is inconvenient for this seat to descend in person."
"In consideration of your status as the lord of a province, your concern for the common people, and your sincere sacrifice..."
"This seat grants it."
"I grant your request and accept your offerings."
As the voice fell, two points of light slowly descended from the vermilion rift.
They were two deformed eyeballs.
They drifted down slowly, eventually hovering in front of Yin Xuan.
"These objects were originally from Gloomlight Province and were refined by this seat's hand."
"The price for them to cross the boundary will be smaller."
"However, due to crossing the boundary, their strength is currently non-existent."
"You only need to nourish and support them with your royal fortune and merit over a long period, and they will slowly recover."
"When the time comes, they can help you temporarily suppress the terrestrial poison."
"If there is sinful karma, vengeful spirits, or death qi, they can also absorb and convert it for their own use, helping them quickly restore their original strength."
"When the Golden Buddha descends upon the world..."
"With the assistance of these Judge's Eyes, you will be aided in seizing the Golden Buddha."
Chen Zhou felt he was hearing something extraordinary.
He had long known that provinces were separated by boundaries.
No wonder the Judge possessed a godhead but had mediocre strength; it turned out that crossing the boundary had cost it dearly, preventing a full recovery.
Chen Zhou thought of the Plague-Eating Stove, which had followed Bodhisattva Jieyin in smuggling from Tianchi Province to Gloomlight Province, also abandoning its physical body and suffering a massive loss in power.
Master Grand Vow had crossed boundaries several times with the help of the realm earthworm, and who knew what he had sacrificed back then.
Currently, the only thing capable of crossing boundaries without loss seemed to be the Living Dead Secret Realm rewarded by the system.
Unfortunately, there was no rift leading to the Central Province within the secret realm. Chen Zhou was very curious about what existed in the Central Province that the Vermilion Judgment could not even speak of.
As he mused, a flush of excitement rose on Yin Xuan's face, and he knelt in deep prostration.
But the Vermilion Judgment's next words made him freeze.
"Where is the offering?"
The voice suddenly turned cold.
"This seat has granted your request and bestowed divine objects."
"The hundred thousand living souls and flesh essence you promised... where are they?"
As the words fell, the vermilion light flared intensely, shining directly upon the tens of thousands of bound sacrifices on the third level of the Altar of Heaven!
The light swept over them.
All the bound human sacrifices began to melt rapidly.
Their limbs blurred, their features dissolved, and they finally turned into pools of viscous meat paste.
The color was pitch-black like charcoal and utterly lifeless, almost identical to the black meat Chen Zhou had previously seen in the Path of Hungry Ghosts.
The Vermilion Judgment let out a dissatisfied cold snort.
Like a muffled clap of thunder, it caused the entire dream space to tremble slightly.
"Or is this what you prepared as offerings?"
"What audacity."
"To dare mock this seat with such... filthy things."
Yin Xuan's face turned deathly pale in an instant.
The civil and military officials, palace maids, and eunuchs behind him remained in their stiff postures, but a look of terror seemed to emerge from the depths of their eyes.
In the blink of an eye, those tens of thousands of sacrifices had turned into piles of black meat scattered across the Altar of Heaven, emitting an aura of dead silence.
This was worlds apart from the description of "living souls and flesh essence!"
"Lord Vermilion Judgment, please stay your anger!"
Yin Xuan kowtowed repeatedly toward the sky, his voice trembling beyond recognition.
"It is not that this official intentionally deceived you!"
"The truth is... the truth is that the provincial capital has suffered constant natural and man-made disasters in recent years. The people's livelihood is withered, and nine out of ten houses are empty."
"Every hundred years, we must offer sacrifices to the gods of the Central Province. This has long since... long since drained the provincial capital's foundation."
"We simply... simply could not gather so many living human sacrifices!"
His forehead slammed heavily against the ground, making a dull thud.
"This official... this official only resorted to this as a desperate measure!"
"I only wished to use a substitute to temporarily make up the numbers, hoping for your mercy, my Lord!"
"There was absolutely no intent to mock you!"
What he said might have been the truth.
Continuous sacrifices for thousands of years, with a massive number of living people offered every century, was indeed an unbearable burden for a provincial capital.
People were not leeks; they wouldn't just grow back quickly after being harvested.
Especially with the copper poison and demons running rampant, a sharp decline in population was inevitable.
But would a god care about the difficulties of mortals?
"A desperate measure?"
The Vermilion Judgment's voice was filled with ridicule.
"A great province with a territory of ten thousand miles and countless subjects cannot even gather a hundred thousand sacrifices?"
"Yin Xuan, do you think that because this seat resides in the Central Province for a long time, I am ignorant of the affairs of the lower realm and can be easily fooled?"
"Or do you think that this seat's rules are something that can be haggled over?"
The red light became even more intense, and a terrifying pressure descended, pinning Yin Xuan to the ground and making it nearly impossible for him to breathe.
Among the civil and military officials, some shuddered while others' eyes flickered, but not one dared to speak out.
In that moment of dead silence, a clear voice carrying a hint of youthful energy rang out abruptly.
"This matter has nothing to do with His Majesty!"
The voice came from the ranks of the palace maids and eunuchs.
Chen Zhou, Song Zi'an, and the Nine-Age Crane all turned toward the source of the sound.
Among the bowing eunuchs and palace maids, a young man wearing coarse hemp clothes suddenly raised his head and stepped out of the formation.
He looked to be in his early twenties, with a clean face and bright eyes, carrying a sharp edge that had not yet been ground down by the world.
On his back, he carried a massive iron pot.
The iron pot was nearly half his height, dark and unremarkable, yet it sat as steady as a mountain on his back.
"Yu He?!"
Yin Xuan growled in a mix of shock and anger.
"Get back! Who told you to come out!"
The young man called Yu He was deaf to his reprimand.
He held his head high, gazing at the vermilion in the sky without a trace of fear as he said loudly.
"Substituting the black meat for the living sacrifices was my idea."
"The blame for this... I will carry it!"
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