Clouds piled high, black curtains pressed down from above, so dark and heavy they seemed to weigh on people's hearts. The pedestrians in Langya City hurried along, afraid they would be caught in a torrential downpour and drenched like drowned rats.
Inside the City God Temple, Gao Yun, who had received the Human Emperor's decree of investiture, stood atop the altar and gazed upward, sensing a certain aura of destruction gathering.
A Heavenly Disaster? Or an enemy attack? He was uncertain, his thoughts in turmoil.
As the City God, he had the divine ability to command the power of this region to protect its people. Together with the Pengzhou governor and the Six Doors' Gold Badge Constable, he formed Langya's power triangle. Now, he hesitated over whether to report the anomaly directly to Changle.
Unlike in the past, the Aristocratic Clans scattered throughout the land had become docile beneath the Human Emperor's authority. Though they still wielded considerable influence in their own territories, they could no longer contend with the imperial court.
Even as he hesitated, Gao Yun did not let his guard down. A faint glow appeared across the ground, yellow-brown and nearly imperceptible. It swelled upward, forming an earthen membrane that covered all of Langya City and the surrounding towns. Ordinary Heavenly Disasters would scarcely be able to shake it.
Just then, he clearly felt the aura of destruction gathering and growing heavier, as though it were focused on some spot within the city rather than striking the whole area.
Gao Yun frowned and muttered to himself:
"Is some thousand-year-old tree spirit about to transform into a god and face the test of Heavenly Punishment?"
The thought immediately reminded him of something that had happened recently. Prince Jin, Zhao Heng, had attained Dharmakaya in Changle and joined the