Heir to the Kingdom of 1.4 billion people

Chapter 140 New Abilities: Shared Hatred and Starfire Link
Red Fox Castle, the cemetery on the back hill.

"What's wrong with you guys? Are you still suffering from the aftereffects of the previous battle?"

Xia Mingyu looked at Damien and Youde, who were trembling as if struck by an invisible electric current, and couldn't help but worry.

"Mr. Mingyu, there's something on your head..."

Damien was so nervous that his teeth were chattering. He was about to point his finger at Xia Mingyu's head when he suddenly realized that the shocking deep purple text had disappeared again.

The poet and the pharmacist looked at each other, then simultaneously rubbed their eyes repeatedly, both suspecting they had just hallucinated.

After all, how could a kingdom with 1.4 billion people exist in this world?

Seeing the two's reaction, Xia Mingyu had a vague guess in his mind, and he silently took off the Spark of Fire ring from his hand.

“Look at me, what color is the blessing on my head?” he asked.

"My lord, it's purple, the Morning Star rank!"

Upon seeing the line of deep purple text reappear, Damien, realizing that the scene before him was not an illusion, quickly replied.

At the same time, although he appeared calm on the surface, his heart was in turmoil.

No wonder the viscounts of the southern territories heeded the wise man's advice and carried out an unprecedented purge of their own lands.

If they knew their lord's identity, then this was not a proverb, but an order to be carried out with fanaticism!

"Finally promoted," Xia Mingyu murmured.

"I'm leaving now. Remember not to tell anyone else about this."

After putting the Sparkle back on and snapping his fingers to place a bouquet of flowers on each tombstone in the cemetery, Xia Mingyu hurriedly left.

He couldn't wait to see the abilities that came with the 1.4 billion blessing upgrade.

"Hahahaha, I am the attendant of the heir to the kingdom of 1.4 billion people, hahahaha!"

After Xia Mingyu left, the usually gentle and refined silver-haired poet suddenly started dancing and gesturing wildly, like a drunkard.

Yud, standing to the side, showed no surprise whatsoever; instead, his face was filled with envy.

To become a servant of someone like the Sage, who can be called the embodiment of humanity, is tantamount to being granted the title of Earl!
If it were him, he would be even more excited than Damien right now.

Alas, if he could become even a little more human, he would dare to ask the Sage to become his servant.

Unfortunately, this is just a beautiful dream that exists only in illusion.

Red Fox Castle, guest room.

Xia Mingyu stood in front of the mirror, quietly looking at the line of dark purple text above his head.

Since his last promotion, he has used "blessing" as an incentive, and with the example of Hayden's "King's Teachings," the viscounts and lords throughout the Southern Territory have been frantically carrying out a great purge in order to ensure that their offspring receive "blessing." This has led to some improvement in the lives of the people of the Southern Territory, which is a great achievement.

This time, the crisis that threatened to destroy Twilight City was resolved through the prohibition of drugs and the destruction of tea, which is yet another great achievement.

The combined achievements of these two great undertakings have finally led to another advancement in the protection of 1.4 billion.

"Let me see what abilities I've gained. Ideally, it would be an extraordinary ability on par with the Spark of Hope."

With eager anticipation, Xia Mingyu focused his gaze on the line of text reflected in the mirror.

Gradually, two more lines of text appeared below.

Shared hatred: Temporarily summon one or more of your comrades to your side. The stronger the comrade, the more magic power is required to maintain their presence. There will be a cooldown period after use.

Starfire Link: You can create links with storage space and hidden protection. These links can share space, and you can attach your will to them across distances.

After reading these two lines of text, Xia Mingyu fell into deep thought.

"Shared hatred with you" means I can summon Hagorox and Tamerlan, who will soon be recognized by him as a comrade!
Spark Link = The grain I produce using the Five Grains Abundance can be transported to all parts of Sosia!
Shared hatred + sparks of unity = ?

He's cheating again!
Thank goodness Erkus died early, otherwise I would have summoned Hagoros right then and there and shown him what a fist the size of a human head really meant.

Xia Mingyu looked around the room expressionlessly, and after confirming that no one was there, he silently closed the window and drew the curtains.
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

This sage, revered by everyone in Twilight City, was now laughing and tap-dancing all by himself in his room, as if his whole body was electrified.

The thumping and thumping was so loud it even reached the downstairs.

At dusk, the full moon, like a silver plate, hung high in the inky sky, its cool light pouring down like water.

On the ancient and imposing city wall of Twilight City, a blurry and incomplete "object" is hanging.

It takes a close look to barely make out that it is a human corpse that has been tortured and broken beyond recognition, with only the head and torso remaining.

It is Ekus.

After being surrounded and beaten to death by countless angry mobs in Dusk City, it was hung on the city wall and left to be pelted with stones by passersby.

At first, passersby felt a little sorry for the tragic corpse, but after hearing the reason why the person was hung there, they suddenly complained that there weren't enough hard pebbles on the ground.

After being bathed in the cold moonlight for a long time, the corpse gradually changed, and a blood-red light emerged.

tear.

With a tearing sound, a blood-red bat emerged from the corpse's abdominal cavity, then frantically flew towards the quiet, dense forest far outside the city.

Puff puff.

It wasn't until it disappeared into the dense, deserted undergrowth that it finally stopped flapping its wings.

Gazing in the direction of Twilight City, a flicker of human-like fear flashed in the bat's eyes.

Subsequently, this fear transformed into a deep-seated hatred.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak!" It let out a series of unintelligible hissing sounds.

The general meaning, translated, is: Damn it, damn it, I will definitely come back.
It was the former Clay merchant Erkus, who, after transforming into a vampire, gained the ability to be reborn as a bat after death.

After a person dies, it can transform into a bat and gain a new life.

It initially disliked the ability when it first acquired it, finding it useless. Now, however, it seems to have indeed saved its life, though it will never again be able to enjoy food, women, and fine tea like a human.
"Twilight City, Xia Mingyu, Rosa... Even if I become a bat, I will definitely come back to take my revenge on you!"

Thinking of the suffering inflicted upon him by those ignorant people before his death, his heart was overwhelmed with boundless hatred.

It hurts, it hurts too much!
Although it had often tortured slaves in the past, it never expected that it would suffer so much when it was its turn, as if its soul was being obliterated.

Swish!
Just as it was immersed in hatred, a strange suction force surged in, and in an instant, the scene before its eyes was turned upside down.

When it came to its senses, it found that it had been held in a man's hand.

The man was dressed in a retro black tailcoat, with an exceptionally handsome face and a slender, well-proportioned figure.

He wore close-fitting white gloves on both hands, a black top hat on his head, and held a black and white magic wand in his right hand, looking like a magician performing tricks in a circus.

"Put me down, you bastard!"

The bat let out a cryptic hiss at the man.

The magician frowned slightly, but his expression quickly relaxed, and he said calmly:
"I can't let you go."

"Believer, you have trespassed into my courtyard and trampled on the flowers and plants I have carefully cultivated. Even though you are also a believer in my God, you should atone with your death."

Ekus was stunned that the man could understand it, and after hearing the next sentence, its gaze towards the man instantly turned to terror.

Only at this moment, under the bright moonlight overhead, did it notice the magician's eyes—his left eye was as deep as a violet, and his right eye was as dazzling as molten gold.

What beautiful heterochromatic eyes! My god would surely love them. The moment this thought flashed through his mind, Ekus suddenly realized something.

It focused the last of its pent-up pain into its eyes, staring intently at the magician before it, and then saw something different.

Hua Hua Hua.

Endless, surging black energy, like an ocean, gathered around the magician.

The black aura swayed with his every move, as if the whole world was shaking.

"No, you...you are a bishop!" The blood-red bat's body trembled violently.

Under its terrified gaze, the magician slowly raised his magic wand toward it.

rustling.

Just then, several strands of blood-red magic emerged from the bat's body and gradually coalesced into the phantom of a silver-haired, red-eyed man.

It was none other than the master of the slave capital, the infamous "Piercing Lord" Simon Clay of Sosia.

“Fear is my kin. For our sake as fellow bishops, give me the honor of letting him go, and I will make it up to you.”

Seeing that the magician was about to make a move, Simon hurriedly spoke up.

Seeing a glimmer of hope for rescue, Ekus immediately cast a pleading look at his master.

The magician completely ignored Simon's words and continued raising his wand without the slightest pause.

"Fear! Anyway, you're just playing around in the Southern Territory all day, which is a waste. I'm just sending my servants to help you harvest a little bit of the power of suffering. You won't lose anything."

"Stop immediately, or you will gain the friendship of a bishop; otherwise, you will make an enemy out of nothing!"

Simon used both soft and hard tactics, threatening her.

The magician didn't stop; he silently released his left hand that was gripping the blood-red bat.

boom!
The moment the magic wand was waved, the bat exploded, its foul-smelling flesh splattering all over the grass.

"you!"

Seeing his carefully nurtured family members killed before his eyes, Simon was so enraged that veins bulged on his forehead.

"Fear, I swear in the name of the Bishop of Numbness, the day you set foot in the East will be the day you die!"

puff.

The magician covered his mouth and chuckled; he said nothing, yet he said everything.

Before Simon could get angry again, he lightly swung his bat and shattered the phantom image formed by the gathering of magic in front of him.

After everything calmed down, he looked in the direction of Twilight City, his gaze seemingly penetrating through the dense forest and city walls, and saw in the city square, next to the bronze statue of crimson fire, the new statue that was being built day and night.

"Sage, will you bring happiness or a new wave of disaster to this world?" the magician murmured to himself.

The dark red sky hung low like rotting entrails, the thick clouds churned with the smell of sulfur and tar, and the ground was covered with cracked, scorching earth.

Just seeing such a sight would make one feel dizzy and disoriented, let alone living here.

The only bright spot is that from time to time, a small, blood-red flower blooms in the cracks of the scorched earth, its appearance resembling the red spider lily, which grows only in hell, as described in the poems sung by bards.

Erkus stared blankly at everything, his mind still stuck on the moment the magician swung his wand.

"I...I'm already dead, aren't I?"

Ekus touched his body in disbelief, and to his surprise, he found that he had not only been resurrected, but had also regained his human form.

However, it wasn't the pale giant he became after transforming into a vampire, but rather his previous appearance as a thin merchant.

Tapping.

Just as he was immersed in joy, a heavy footstep slowly approached.

He looked in the direction of the sound and was instantly so frightened that he held his breath.

What a monster it was!
His size was even larger than the pale giant he had transformed into before. His bluish-gray skin was covered with rough, hard keratinous tumors, and what was most terrifying was that he actually had two heads!
The head on the left is that of an adult with its eyes closed, while the head on the right is that of a child, grinning foolishly and even drooling.

The combination of the two is enough to give people a bizarre and distorted feeling that makes their scalp tingle.

"New guy, it's time for you to get to work."

The child-like head spoke in a muffled voice.

"Work, what kind of work?" Ekus asked cautiously, not daring to offend the two-headed giant.

Several red bricks were thrown in front of Ekus.

“Move them up that mountain,” the two-headed giant said, pointing to a mountain path not far away.

After a moment's thought, Ekus chose to obey.

He has just been resurrected and doesn't want to die yet.

The moment his palm touched the red brick, he discovered that it was frighteningly hot.

Fortunately, he still had some perseverance, so he endured the burning pain and carried the red brick up the mountain.

The two-headed giant followed silently behind him the whole way, preventing him from even considering running away.

After an unknown amount of agonizing waiting, the merchant finally carried the red bricks to the top of the mountain.

He immediately threw down the brick, panting heavily as he collapsed to the ground. He was covered in sweat, and his once fair hands were now charred red like pig's trotters.

"New guy, you haven't finished your work yet," the two-headed giant continued in a gruff voice.

"What other work is there?" Erkus asked, his brow furrowed.

"Move these bricks back to where they were," the two-headed giant said.

Ekus: "???"

"Are you kidding me? You're not going to make me move back after I move there, are you?" Erkus said incredulously.

"You're so smart."

After a moment of silence, the two-headed giant spoke softly, a hint of envy appearing on his child-like head.

"You fucking bastard!" Erkus could no longer contain the boiling rage within him.

"Why bother talking to him so much?" Just then, the left head of the two-headed giant, which resembled an adult, suddenly opened its eyes, a hint of disdain flashing in its gaze as it looked at the Clay merchant in front of it.

Suddenly, a long whip wreathed in flames appeared in the giant's left hand, and he swung it fiercely, striking Ekus on the back.

"Ah!"

In an instant, Ekus experienced unprecedented extreme pain, as if it was not his body that was being whipped, but his soul.

At the same time, he watched as a wisp of black mist emerged from his body and drifted toward the dark red sky above.

In that instant, Ekus had a sudden realization, understanding where he was and why the bishop had been able to accumulate such immense power of suffering.

"Ah ah ah ah ah!"

Realizing the terrible predicament he was about to fall into, the businessman went completely insane.

(End of this chapter)