Secular world: My destiny has no taboos

Chapter 549-559: Two Choices, The Wind and Rain River God

"These guys?"

Lin Beixuan frowned slightly, his gaze falling on the two people in the crack of the restaurant window.

That's right, he's the one Chu Aotian mistook for a Northern Underworld Army officer.

Even Chu Aotian, who carried out the assassination, hadn't expected this, because he hadn't done any prior investigation and was unaware that Lin Beixuan had personally come to Liangzhou.

Seeing Lin Beixuan riding ahead on horseback, he assumed he was a general in the Beiming Army. In his mind, an ordinary general was at most at the Kaifu Realm, and a spear would be more than enough for him. But he never expected to make such a big mistake.

At this moment, Chu Aotian was filled with regret.

He felt his soul being slowly peeled away by the other person's gaze, and he was powerless to resist.

Song Chengshu, standing behind him, felt a chill in his heart, lamenting his bad luck in running into that fool Chu Aotian, which had dragged him down with him.

Lin Beixuan grabbed the two souls and made them kneel at his feet.

He could have killed the two men directly at the source, but considering their assassination attempt, he loosened his grip on Song Chengshu and the other man slightly and asked them why.

Chu Aotian was trembling with fear. He turned his head and saw that his body was still standing behind the window, but his eyes were lifeless, as if he had lost his most essential qualities.

That is the soul.

For a layman, the most important thing is his soul.

If the soul is damaged, even if one returns to the mortal world, one will become an idiot.

His arrogance was shattered at that moment.

Song Chengshu explained the whole story in detail, only asking Lin Beixuan to spare his life.

However, Lin Beixuan's expression remained indifferent, making it impossible for Lin Beixuan to guess what he was thinking.

"Soul-stealing."

"My subordinate is here!"

The Soul Reaper who had previously appeared outside Xushui City appeared in the shadows at the street corner and bowed to Lin Beixuan.

"Take these two spirits back to the underworld and handle it according to the rules," Lin Beixuan waved his hand.

The Soul Reaper nodded in agreement.

Subsequently, the first case of a mortal being banished to the underworld occurred.

The spirits imprisoned in the underworld cannot return to their original bodies, thus losing the ability to be resurrected.

In other words, mortals can be restrained by the underworld; they are like wandering spirits from elsewhere, and they are most afraid of the underworld officials.

As this story spread, the commoner would mostly avoid people from the underworld whenever he saw them, and dared not come into contact with them.

Today's assassination attempt was just a minor incident for Lin Beixuan, but it served as a wake-up call for him.

Since the King of Liang has already arranged for assassinations of generals in the Beiming army, this is definitely not the only wave.

After that, as the Beiming Army remains within Liangzhou territory, there will likely be a constant stream of assassinations.

If it were only targeting him, that would be one thing, but even assassinations by ordinary mortal gods wouldn't work on him, let alone those who established their own mansions and invited gods.

However, these things might be troublesome for the other generals of the Northern Underworld Army.

What worries him most is that Wu Huo and his group are very likely to be assassinated by the mortal gods.

If a mortal god wants a mortal to die, the chances of the mortal resisting and escaping are very small.

Thinking of this, Lin Beixuan immediately issued a military order.

In peacetime, generals of the Northern Dark Army are prohibited from leaving their camps.

Meanwhile, Lin Beixuan consulted with Fox Spirit God and others.

"Instead of waiting for them to come to us, we should take the initiative to go to them."

Faced with this situation where I am in the open while the enemy is in the dark, Lin Beixuan believes the best solution is to take the initiative and teach the other party a lesson.

Don't worry about not being able to find the other person.

Because you might be able to hide, but you can't hide the incense shrine. By finding the incense shrine and understanding the connection between the shrine and the local deities, you can pinpoint the other party's location.

That same day, Lin Beixuan released all the mortal gods of Luozhou, pairing them up in twos to have a good chat with the mortal gods of Liangzhou.

Thus, the war between the folk gods of Luozhou and Liangzhou officially began.

When people fight each other, God should naturally be left to God.

On one side, the Northern Underworld Army was advancing madly into Liangzhou, while on the other side, the mortal gods of Luozhou spread out in a fan shape, seeking and choosing their respective opponents.

In just one day, the Shadow God and the Hidden God found the dwelling place of a mortal god in Liangzhou.

This is a large river located in Liangzhou. The surface of the river is turbulent, and the undercurrents are even more turbulent, having swallowed countless fishing boats.

Xiajiang Village is a small fishing village located on the banks of the Yulong River. Most of the villagers make a living by fishing, relying on the mountains and the water for sustenance.

This great river has nurtured many people along its banks, and the river god within it is worshipped in temples, with people praying for favorable weather and abundant harvests.

However, there are requirements for achieving favorable weather and abundant harvests.

Every year during the rainy season, fishing villages along the river must offer a pair of young boys and girls as sacrifices; otherwise, the river god will create great waves, preventing fishermen from entering the river and even risking the flooding of the villages.

It is euphemistically called an equivalent exchange.

Although the fishing villages along the river had their grievances, they had no choice but to grit their teeth and comply in order to make a living.

The village chiefs of the three fishing villages on both sides of the river decided that each village would take turns offering sacrifices every year, which would be fair to everyone.

This year, it's Xiajiang Village's turn.

At this time, the riverbank along the river in Xiajiang Village was already crowded with people. In the middle was an altar filled with three kinds of sacrificial animals. Tall red candles burned on both sides of the altar, and three long incense sticks were inserted into the incense burner, with wisps of smoke rising upwards.

After the village chief finished reciting a long proclamation, the crowd slowly parted from both sides, and two groups of people walked out from the middle, one being a couple with their child.

The woman was already in tears, clutching her child's clothes tightly, and even her steps were unsteady.

A relative tried to help her up, but the woman pushed him away.

The two fathers, on the other hand, had ashen faces, their rough hands clenched into fists, their knuckles white, and their arms trembling slightly.

Which parents would want their child to be sacrificed to the river god?

Although nominally they were sent to serve the River God, everyone knew that was just an excuse.

The children were swept into the river by the huge waves as soon as they entered, and death was all that awaited them.

The man approached the village chief and pleaded, "Village chief, Mu'er is my only child. Please spare him!"

Upon hearing this, the village chief of Xiajiang Village sighed, a hint of reluctance in his eyes as well.

"Ah Kuan, this was decided by drawing lots, there's nothing I can do! Your child is your precious darling, but aren't the other children's too?"

"With frequent wars nowadays, we can only pray to the River God for protection in order to give us all a chance to survive."

The man named A-Kuan looked mournful, his fists clenched so tightly they cracked: "But Mu'er is only five years old!"

“The River God demands virgin boys and girls every year, yet every year someone dies in the Jade Dragon River. We pray for calm waters, but it only lasts for a while. Afterwards, the waves are still raging, killing many people. If the River God were truly effective, how could this have happened…”

"How dare you!" Before A-Kuan could finish speaking, the village chief slapped him across the face, staring at him with a sinister gaze: "Do you intend to defy the River God?"

"Stop talking and bring your child up here right now."

Upon hearing this, the child's mother cried even louder.

When the two children saw their mothers crying, they started to cry too.

Seeing this, the people of Xiajiang Village felt sorry for the villagers, but no one stood up to speak at this time.

Every family in the village has a child. If someone steps forward to help, it's their own child who gets sent to the river.

The villages along the river are all like this; who would dare to stand up?

The bamboo raft was pushed to the riverbank, and the two children on the raft were tied to bamboo chairs. No matter how distressed they were, the ceremony did not stop.

The two pairs of parents on the shore have already been taken into custody by the village chief's men.

He sees this kind of thing every three years, so he's long since become numb to it.

"Raise the sails!"

The village chief shouted, and the simple canvas erected on the bamboo raft was pulled down. Suddenly, a gust of river wind blew, and the raft was about to drift into the river with the two children.

The woman's cries on the shore grew even louder and more desperate, her sobbing heart-wrenching and plunging everyone into a somber atmosphere.

However, at that moment, a huge black shadow suddenly emerged from the shadows, stretching all the way to the river surface and climbing onto the bamboo raft.

The bamboo raft, which had been drifting towards the center of the river, suddenly stopped, as if pulled back by some strange force.

The village chief's pupils dilated in shock at the sight, and he pointed at the dark shadow looming beneath their feet, exclaiming in fear, "What is that?"

What he can see, everyone else can see too.

The two couples were overjoyed to see the bamboo raft drifting back, as it meant their children might not have to die.

However, for some reason, a thick fog suddenly rose on the river, and the wind began to blow even more violently, pulling the bamboo raft towards the center of the river once again.

However, the shadowy figure was not to be outdone and turned the bamboo raft back again.

Back and forth they went, the bamboo raft carrying the young boy and girl drifted quietly not far from the center of the river.

"In the end what happened?"

This strange sight puzzled the villagers of Xiajiang Village, who began to discuss it amongst themselves.

Suddenly, someone saw a huge, imposing creature emerge from the water amidst the rising mist on the river, and immediately exclaimed in surprise.

"The River God, that's the River God!"

Everyone turned their attention to it, and saw a dragon with two horns on its head and its body covered with scales like jade.

The dragon flicked its tongue, its cold, vertical eyes fixed on the dark shadow reflected on the river.

A sharp, cold voice came from its mouth: "Fellow Daoist, you've broken some rules!"

To the villagers of Xiajiang Village on the riverbank, the enormous black shadow that shrouded the river suddenly stood up, transforming into a humanoid monster with an indistinct face, confronting their river god.

"Rules?" Shadow God chuckled. "What kind of time is this to talk to me about rules?"

"I'm not here to make friends with you today, but to cause you trouble."

Upon hearing this, Yulongjiang God's eyes narrowed: "You're a mortal god from Luozhou?"

The Shadow God laughed, and a dark shadow spread out, almost enveloping the entire Yulong River.

"Congratulations, you got the answer right. Unfortunately, there is no reward."

Yulongjiang frowned and said, "Was it the Northern Underworld Lord who sent you? I have no intention of being your enemy. If you leave now, I can pretend nothing happened."

"Ever since I set foot in Liangzhou, I have smelled the stench of you Liangzhou mortal gods. Your incense is impure, and the divinity you exude becomes rotten and disgusting."

"A mortal god like you is actually stirring up trouble in the river to blackmail people for offerings of children's blood. Even I, a perverted god, find you perverted."

“If you’re going to be an evil god, be an evil god openly and honestly. If you want to be a benevolent god and put on a virtuous facade, but secretly act like a prostitute, then even the gods can’t bear to look.”

The Shadow God spoke without any restraint, so much so that everyone in Xiajiang Village on the riverbank heard him.

Many families whose children had been sacrificed turned pale upon hearing this, and their gazes toward the Jade Dragon River God began to reveal something else.

Yulongjiang God stared coldly at Shadow God: "Don't push your luck! Otherwise, even if you have the support of the Northern Underworld Lord, I still dare to send you back into the cycle of incense offerings."

"Hahaha……"

Upon hearing this, Shadow God laughed and waved his hand in the air, creating a sentence that appeared there.

"The Lord said that he can give you, the mortal gods from other states, a chance to choose."

"First, join the Northern Underworld Army and help them take control of Liangzhou. Your past actions will be forgiven, and you will still hold the position of River God. However, you must not cause trouble or offer blood sacrifices to the children."

This last paragraph was added by the Shadow God himself.

Although he was once an evil god who led people astray, he never did anything like feeding children with blood. It is clear that even he couldn't stand what the Jade Dragon River God was doing.

"Second, if you get beaten up by us, whether you live or die depends entirely on how well you can take the beating."

"us?"

Upon hearing this, Yulongjiang Shen became highly vigilant and quickly looked to his side, where a space was cleaved open by a sharp blade, and Cang Shen walked out expressionlessly.

"Two mortal gods!"

The Jade Dragon River God was shocked. If it were just a mortal god, it might be able to barely handle it, but if another one came, the situation would be really hard to say.

The Hidden God said calmly, "I'll give you three breaths. If you don't answer, then it will be assumed that you've chosen option two."

"You guys are going too far!"

The Jade Dragon River God roared, causing the river to surge. Its enormous dragon body leaped out of the water and pounced on the nearest Hidden God.

It has no other options.

If they join the camp of the Lord of the Northern Underworld, they will be unable to explain themselves to King Liang and the powerful mortal god behind him.

It had previously promised King Liang that it would help him fight against the Northern Underworld army.

Unexpectedly, the Lord of the Northern Underworld sent two mortal gods to cause trouble for it in advance, catching it off guard and leaving it no time to ask for help.

Shadow God snorted coldly: "It seems you've made a wrong decision."

Cang Shen twirled a sharp, dark yellow blade between his fingers and said calmly, "It's a good time to try out the dark yellow blade that I exchanged for merit points from the Lord of the Prefecture."

A battle was about to break out.

In an instant, the surface of the Yulong River was cut in two by a tremendous force, and the river flow was briefly interrupted.

"Boom!"

As the altars of both sides were set up, the people of Xiajiang Village standing on the riverbank felt as if they had entered a strange world. Strange phenomena kept flashing before their eyes, and they were like ants watching the gods fight.

The bamboo raft floating on the river was caught in the vortex of power of the three mortal gods, like a small boat being swept away by a giant wave, about to be pulled to the bottom of the river in an instant.

Just then, a dark figure lifted the small boat with a large hand and slammed it down on the Yulong River God, who was rushing towards it with wind and rain.

(End of this chapter)