Daily Intelligence: From Water Snake to Jinghe Dragon King

Chapter 204: Luring the rebels to destroy the statues, severing incense offerings, and causing a decline in spiritual cultivation.

A few days ago, just after Liu Qing recovered from his injuries and went into seclusion to forge magical artifacts for the river demons under his command, Li Shimin, based on Liu Qing's advice,

They sneaked into Chang'an City beforehand, arrived at the City God Temple, and secretly paid someone to apply a layer of gold powder to the statue of the City God.

In addition, several thousand taels of gold and silver were secretly buried on the ground next to the statue in the City God Temple.

Although the City God can oversee both the living and the dead, when he saw someone painting his statue with gold powder, he assumed it was due to a surge in his faith and the donations from believers fulfilling their vows. He was so happy that he didn't think much of it.

Little did they know, this was precisely the key to the plan Liu Qing and Li Shimin made to slay the god.

The nearly ten thousand rebel soldiers, a large force, were led to the City God Temple by Li's private soldiers who were mixed in with the crowd. Upon seeing the City God Temple, the rebels all had second thoughts and wanted to retreat.

Their long-standing habit of worshipping the gods prevented them from committing evil deeds in front of the City God Temple.

Seeing this, one of Li's private soldiers, who was mixed in with them, pretended to kick the ground unintentionally, and with a clang, a silver ingot was kicked out.

"Wow, silver! Look at me, I really found silver in the City God Temple."

"Rumor has it that the City God Temple is extremely luxurious and full of treasures, and now it is indeed true; there is so much silver that it has been buried underground."

The rebels stared longingly at the silver in the hands of the Li family's private soldiers, but hesitated and dared not step forward.

Li's private soldiers rolled their eyes: "Hey, what are you afraid of? We're not robbing the City God. This silver is probably hidden by the temple keeper in the City God Temple. If we rob the temple keeper, the City God won't blame us."

These words immediately made the rebels' eyes light up.

Yes, the City God doesn't use silver; at most, he just enjoys the incense offerings. This silver must have been hidden by the temple keeper.

We don't rob the City God, we only rob the temple keeper, then the City God won't blame us.

After a period of mental preparation and self-reassurance, the rebels no longer cared about their fear of the gods and swarmed into the City God Temple.

As luck would have it, one of the rebels stumbled and felt something trip him up. Looking down, he saw a bulge in the soil beneath his feet. He pried it open with his knife and found another silver ingot. He immediately became excited.

"There really is silver. There really is silver buried underground in this City God Temple."

Upon seeing this, the other rebels' eyes instantly turned red. They used the weapons they had used to kill as shovels and rakes from their earlier days, and began digging at the ground of the City God Temple.

"Holy crap, I found a silver ingot too."

"Shh, big brother, are you crazy? Don't make a sound, or you'll attract other people to snatch it."

Soon, the other rebels also made their own gains. Each of them dug out a few taels or coins of silver from the ground. Although it wasn't much, it confirmed the truth of the rumors: there really was silver in the City God Temple.

As a result, more rebels began to pour into the City God Temple. They took out their knives and guns and dug at the ground inside the temple, searching for silver. Soon, the main hall of the City God Temple was riddled with holes, and the sky was three feet high.

Their greed was fully aroused, and their fear of the City God gradually overshadowed their desire for silver.

They quickly forgot about it completely. No matter how scary the City God was, he wasn't as scary as poverty. Once we had money, we wouldn't be poor anymore.

Suddenly, someone shouted, "Look! The statue of the City God is painted with gold powder!"

"It's real gold dust, not gold paint."

The Li family's private soldier, with a resolute look in his eyes, drew his knife and scraped off a layer from the City God statue, then spread it out in his hand.

Upon seeing this, the rebels immediately became breathless.

The enormous statue of the City God was coated with gold powder made from crushed gold. My goodness, how much gold must have been used!

If there's gold, why would anyone bother digging for silver in the ground?

With his greed fully aroused, his fear of the City God was long forgotten, and he was only stunned for a moment.

With a bang, all the rebels rushed toward the statue of the City God.

They scraped with knives, making a screeching sound, scrambling to scrape off the gold dust.

There were too many people, and there was only one statue of the City God, so a fight naturally broke out. The stronger ones roared and pushed aside the other rebels to grab a good spot and scrape off the gold dust.

Faced with the gold dust on the idol, the rebels had long forgotten their relative strength. Seeing themselves being pushed aside, they immediately flew into a rage and slashed at it with their swords.

The innermost rebels were hacked down, howling in pain, only to be trampled to death by the people surging up from behind. The rebels who had just been hacked down were then hacked to death by the rebels behind them.

Thus, the corpses piled up in front of the City God statue, and the blood soaked the foundation of the statue. The rebels went mad, relentlessly advancing wave after wave, dying, then coming again, and being killed again.

Liu Qing hovered in mid-air. Under his Yin-Yang supernatural power, he saw wisps of malevolent energy frantically growing within the City God Temple, almost coalescing into a cloud of malevolent energy.
The increasing amount of evil energy seeped into the City God statue, while the rest coiled around the heads of each rebel soldier.

There was another one, the size of a black snake, which circled the void once before suddenly burrowing into the body of the Li family's private soldier.

The next instant, the Li family's private soldier, who had repeatedly instigated and led the rebels, had his brow and forehead turn as black as ink.

With a deafening roar, the City God statue, whose foundation had been softened by the fighting and the blood of the fallen rebels, collapsed.

The statue collapsed and shattered, sending fragments flying everywhere. The broken pieces, like a hail of arrows, killed and wounded countless nearby, crazed rebels.

One of the largest fragments flew fiercely towards the Li family's private soldiers and struck him on the head.

Li's private soldiers died.

But it seemed he had a premonition, and when he died, he showed no fear, but rather a kind of generosity in sacrificing himself for righteousness.

Knowing full well that blasphemy would have a backlash, he still did it without hesitation. This private soldier of the Li family was willing to give up his own life for Li Shimin. Liu Qing admired his actions.

After the City God statue collapsed, Liu Qing, using his Yin-Yang supernatural powers, saw a thick layer of incense smoke rapidly dissipating from the shattered statue.

It's likely that the City God, who is currently within the City God's realm, is not feeling well at this moment.

Within the City God's domain.

The City God, Yang Zhen, stood with his hands behind his back. In front of him were two large oil cauldrons. In one cauldron, Li Hu, the civil judge, was being fried, and in the other cauldron, Yuan Datou, the general who had subdued the waves, was being fried.

Both of them were deities worshipped by incense, possessing profound spiritual power, unlike the earlier ghost who was fried in boiling oil until crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.

Even so, despite being protected by the divine power of incense, they were still sizzling and screaming in agony from being deep-fried in boiling oil. Blisters appeared on their skin, and with the slightest movement, the blisters burst, releasing the divine power of incense.

The two of them were bombarded daily by the City God Yang Zhen. Although they wouldn't die immediately, they were tormented and suffered greatly, and their divine power gradually diminished.

“Li Hu, I disguised myself as you and appeared in your dream to force Liu Qing to come to the Dharma Realm to save you. Several days have passed, and Liu Qing still hasn’t come. My patience is almost exhausted.”

"Old ghost Yang, don't bother. Liu Qing isn't stupid. He knows that coming to the Dharma Realm is suicide, so why would he come?"

"Now that I'm in your hands, you can do whatever you want with me. At worst, I'll die again. Don't bother making a fuss, Liu Qing won't come in."

Frowning, the City God saw that Judge Li Hu was very stubborn, so he had no choice but to turn his attention to Yuan Datou.

Yuan Datou's face was contorted from being fried in boiling oil, and he gasped in pain. Seeing the City God looking over, he couldn't help but curse:
"Fuck you, you old devil Yang! Now that I'm in your hands, I don't even want to live anymore. Just give me a quick death."

"Don't even think about using me to force Brother Liu to come in. My brother isn't stupid."

"Is it worth giving up your path to immortality for a mere sense of brotherhood?"

“If it weren’t for my brother Liu, I would have died long ago during the sacrificial ceremony to the gods. Now I’m returning this life to him, and I have no regrets.”

Unable to deal with the two, the City God Yang Zhen, with a gloomy face, had no choice but to order his underworld officials to add more bones to the oil cauldron to make the ghost fire burn even brighter.

The already boiling oil in the pot sizzled and emitted blue smoke, causing the temperature to rise even higher. Wenpan Li Hu and Yuan Datou instantly suffered even greater pain.

"Damn you, old ghost Yang! My brother Liu will avenge me sooner or later! Ouch, that hurts so much!"

The City God Yang Zhen ignored Yuan Datou's curses and simply ordered his underworld messengers to increase the oil temperature and continue the torture.

He had given up on forcing Liu Qing into the City God's realm; it was simply because the two guys under his control were too stubborn and unwilling to cooperate.

If he weren't the City God, only in charge of the Yin and Yang realms and unable to manifest himself like other river and mountain gods, Yang Zhen would have already stormed his door.

The world outside is in even greater chaos, with more and more people rebelling. The Sui Dynasty is teetering on the brink of collapse.

The incompetent Yang Guang gave up the struggle and now sails south to Jiangdu in a dragon boat, preparing to enjoy himself one last time before the fall of the Sui Dynasty.

What a terrible child! If I had known what Yang Guang would look like now, I should have appeared in Yang Jian's dream and strangled him when he was just born.

It's better than ruining the Yang family's empire now.

Alas, the situation is hopeless. I cannot leave the City God's realm. I am powerless to do anything about it. I regret not killing Liu Qing last time, letting him escape.

If we kill him, the Li family will surely be powerless without his help. Even if my Yang family loses other places, we can still protect Qin and have a chance to start over.

Just as the City God Yang Zhen was filled with regret and remorse, a loud bang suddenly rang out, and the earth began to shake violently.

After the deafening roar, countless cracks appeared in the sky within the City God's realm, like glass about to shatter.

The ground within the City God's realm also shook violently, the Yin River surged with turbid waves, the Chaotic Soul Mountain teetered on the brink of collapse, and countless bottomless cracks appeared in the earth.

Countless soul beasts rushed out from Chaotic Soul Mountain, scattering aimlessly like madmen. The ghosts in the Dharma Realm were terrified and lost their composure, crying and screaming.

The City God immediately activated his magic, observing the Yin and Yang realms, his eyes shooting out divine light as he looked through the barrier of the Dharma realm.

Upon understanding the reason, the City God Yang Zhen's face turned ashen, and his eyes revealed undisguised shock, anger, and fear.

"Damn mortals, how dare you blaspheme!"

"You dare to destroy the City God statue that I left outside! Your crimes are heinous!"

(End of this chapter)