Lord Xue Ying
chapter-494

The Bloodshed God Palace arranged for each of the countless planets within their territory, to have their many lifeforms put their faith in certain powerful Deities! After placing a 'Deity Image' on the planet, they could then condense the faith energy into an item. The various superpowers would then proceed with collecting these items and sending a portion as tribute upward. However, since the legion was unable to pervade every last planet, due to a shortage of manpower, it was impossible for them to truly control this process. Therefore, it was not uncommon for the many World Deity superpowers to spread their roots even deeper all over the many planets! They would then be responsible for collecting faith energy, which was an extremely complex task.

As for the others who sought faith, they would have to be daring enough to steal the faith energy directly from a planet!

Even so, lured by their desire to become World Deities, many late stage Deities, or even peak Deities, would commit to this risk! As a result, enough control over a planet was necessary in order to make sure that faith energy was not pilfered.

The Xia Clan World was a good example. After Xue Ying grasped hold of the Mirage Deity Heart, he was able to block the transmission of faith energy from the Xia Clan World into the external world, which left the World Deity from the Temple of the Earth God anxious, even making him go as far as to send a Deity Avatar down in hopes of regaining the faith energy.

Faith energy…was known to be even more valuable than Deity crystals! Or so was the case for everyone except for people like Xue Ying; if one's goal was to become a powerful existence, they would absolutely not absorb any faith energy. However, most other World Deities were absolutely willing to do so, since it would aid them in their cultivation. If someone like Xue Ying used faith energy, he could have easily cultivated the "Luminous Sun" to the fourth boundary, and he would have even become a stage three World Deity already.

Faith energy lent itself to bringing about a qualitative change in one's cultivation.

"The Nest of Myriad Devils controls thirty-two starfields in total? Why is it that the faith energy they've collected is so pitiful, then?" Xue Ying sneered.

"The reason is recorded above," General Mo began. "The starfields under their rule saw frequent cases of Deities stealing their faith energy, while large scale wars in the past resulted in a reduction of human population."

Xue Ying sighed. "All of those starfields under their control see such things happening frequently, you say? Aren't they extraordinarily unfortunate? General Mo, have you ever gone over to investigate? Can you confirm that their reports are correct?"

General Mu helplessly replied, "That is… This eastern region of the Calm Sea Prefecture is so vast, and there are so many planets in it. Even if I were to visit each of those planet one by one, would I even be able to conduct a proper investigation? Could I reverse time on every single planet? Such a thing is would not be feasible! Don't worry though, our intel is complete, with each report containing the name of who went to collect each planet's faith energy."

Xue Ying sneered.

His Majesty really was relatively lax in terms of his management of the various strata belonging to the Bloodshed God Palace.

However, the places like the Nest of Myriad Devils which dared to be so excessive in how they went about such matters were still the minority. Most other superpowers would never dare be so upfront! The Nest of Myriad Devils relied on Ying Gu Liang, after all, as well as General Mo who closed an eye on their business, allowing them to report a tribute of faith energy that was much lower than what was expected of them.

"Alright. I'll be taking these scrolls with me," Xue Ying said. "There's no issue with that, right?"

"Naturally," General Mu replied.

"Let's go!" Xue Ying waved his hand to store the wooden trunks on his person. Soon after he left the palace hall, an enormous emerald ship appeared in mid-air, upon which Xue Ying and his large group of subordinates then flew onto.

Sou.

The Starfield Flying Ship flew away with great speed, quickly disappearing into the horizon.

General Mo watched it depart from afar.

"General, does His Highness plan to gather the faith energy for himself?" an old man with a long beard asked.

"The Venomous Ying World Deity and Ying Gu Liang have been stuffing their pockets with faith energy for a very long time. Adding everything up, they should have gathered faith energy with an approximate value of eight hundred million Deity crystals." General Mo sneered. "However, even Ying Gu Liang has to distribute some to that to the officials in charge over at the Bloodshed God Palace, so the brother and sister pair likely only has about five hundred million Deity crystals worth of energy."

"I personally have no way to deal with those people, but His Highness, Dong Bo… Hehe, His Highness has His Majesty backing him. There's no better backing anyone could ever have," General Mo said. "Things should be getting interesting."

　　******

The Starfield Flying Ship passed through the spacetime passage, rushing over to the Nest of Myriad Devils.

The Nest of Myriad Devils took the form of many enormous mountains amidst a vast starry sky. These mountains were so tall that each occupied an area of more than a few hundred million kilometers. There was also a black fog shrouding the mountain range, and countless venomous snakes slithered within. Countless Deities lived here, and even a number of World Deities. In total, there were five stage two World Deities, most of them specializing in hexing poison. After all, the Venomous Ying World Deity was known as the strongest expert in terms of hexing poison in the entire Calm Sea Prefecture, and the large amount of poisonous substances within the Nest of Myriad Devils made it a truly appropriate location for researching hexing poison.

"Quick, take a look."

"It's a Starfield Flying Ship."

"That's a Starfield Flying Ship. Send a report to master, quickly." The social stratification within the Nest of Myriad Devils was quite strict. Soon, the Venomous Ying World Deity herself flew out from an enormous palace. By her side was a short subordinate, and to her back was a group of stage two and stage one World Deities. As for Deities, there were so many that they were practically uncountable. From a glance, it seemed like there were more than a hundred million Deities with her.

The Nest of Myriad Devils seemed to be quite tyrannical indeed.

The Venomous Ying World Deity watched on with a sneer. In the distance, an enormous Starfield Flying Ship was crushing apart the void to fly over. There where rows upon rows of green-armored soldiers standing on the deck of this ship, every single one of them displaying a powerful aura. Every last one reached the combat power of a new World Deity, after all.

Even though there were only two thousand soldiers on this ship, the collective aura they emitted completely surpassed that of the hundreds of millions of Deities below!

This was the qualitative difference between a legion of Bloodshed God Palace and a bunch of troops from all over the place!

Hua~ The green-armored soldiers rapidly flew out to occupy some space in the void, and the Starfield Flying Ship soon disappeared.

Xue Ying flew out to stand at the very forefront of the legion, together with Jing Qiu, Dong Bo Yu, Qing Yao, and Xi Wei.

"Dare I ask you, supervisor envoy, why you have come?" The Venomous Ying World Deity sneered. "I have reached at a crucial moment in my cultivation, so unless you are here on an important matter, I'm afraid I can't accompany you."

"Venomous Ying," Xue Ying shouted. "After investigating the collection of faith energy, I've discovered that the amount of faith energy you have sent upwards is suspiciously small! I want you to bring out every last person who was responsible for collection in your Nest of Myriad Devils. I want to interrogate every single one of them."

"They are all dead," the Venomous Ying World Deity casually replied.

"All dead?" Xue Ying frowned. "You control thirty-two starfields, with so many planets under your rule, yet you want me to believe that every last one of those million Deities who were responsible for collecting faith are all dead?"

"I'm telling you they're dead." The Venomous Ying World Deity sighed. "I was researching my hexing poison, and a careless mistake on my part caused the experimental poison to spread out, sending countless Deities to their deaths. If they're dead, they're dead. Supervisor envoy…there's nothing I can do about it."

Could she really send those responsible for the collection over? She would not hand over even a single one.

It was enough to investigate one of those people thoroughly, or even just to reverse time to view what happened on the the many planets, and the truth would easily come out. Therefore, she had already decided not to hand a single one of them over.

Xue Ying sneered after understanding the situation. "A total of one million Deities were responsible for collecting faith energy, yet every last one died. What a miraculous outcome. You may believe that lie, but I do not. I doubt any of the officials responsible in the Bloodshed God Palace would accept it either."

"If you don't want to believe it, there's nothing I can do about it either way. It's just the reality," the Venomous Ying World Deity replied. "If you truly don't trust me, you can go ahead and search this Nest of Myriad Devils to your heart's content."

"One million Deities, and they're all dead! Can there be that big of a coincidence?" Xue Ying roared. "Your excuse, Venomous Ying World Deity, is beyond belief. I'm afraid I can only capture you and send you over to the Bloodshed God Palace. There, you will be interrogated to find out the truth. Hear my orders! Commander Bai Li, capture the Venomous Ying World Deity and send her over to the Bloodshed God Palace for me! Deities of the Nest of Myriad Devils, do not attempt to resist. Anyone who resists…will be judged as having disobeyed the Bloodshed God Palace and will be sentenced to death!"

"Yes!" Commander Bai Li Shang acknowledged. His subordinates all revealed the killing intent in their eyes, one after one.

This was to be the very first battle they would participate in after joining Xue Ying's personal guard.

　　**