Qin He leaned against the vermilion railing of the City Lord's Mansion terrace, twirling a strand of merit golden light between his fingertips. The light was as gentle as warm jade, yet traces of the Gold-Black Law flickered within it between his fingers.
"Has the Divine Court really made no move at all?" He looked toward the horizon. Above the clouds, the oppressive presence of the Divine Court that had once lingered there had long since vanished without a trace.
The Black Demon Banner drifted out of his sleeve, and Long Qingyun's soul shadow swayed amid the bloody patterns on its surface. "What's the hurry? In the Divine Court's eyes, this little patch called Everbright Commandery doesn't even count as a speck of dust."
He paused, his soul light drawing together. "Those lofty High Gods only have eyes for breakthroughs into the Imperial Dao Realm and gathering demon flame origins. Why would they care about this little fluctuation in merit at mortal Divine Shrines? Besides, you cut off the shrine officials' reporting channels. Even if they wanted to notice, they'd have to wait until the inspection three years from now."
Qin He chuckled and flicked the golden light from his fingertips. It became a slender stream that flowed toward the Divine Shrine below.
Over the past three months, the merit and thought power from the Divine Shrines in thirty-six cities had flowed into him like streams gathering into the sea. The membrane of merit light in his sea of consciousness grew ever denser, and the fusion of his sacred soul steadily progressed.
Yet although mortals' thought power was abundant, it was scattered and weak. To truly secure the foundations of faith, he still had to rely on cultivators.
At the Divine Shrine in Azure Wind City, a gray-robed cultivator knelt