"Greetings, Venerable God!"
Liao Xiu'er and Liao Chengping immediately knelt and bowed respectfully.
"Venerable... Venerable God?"
"W-where... where are we..."
Helplessness and terror filled Liao Xiong's eyes. But beneath the weight of Divine Might, he had no power to resist and dropped straight to his knees in the courtroom, trembling.
He had never been as terrified as he was at that moment.
He didn't even dare raise his head to look at the figure seated above, blazing like the radiant sun!
"Liao Xiong, five years ago, you pushed Liao Xiu'er and Liao Chengping down a well, causing their deaths. Do you plead guilty?"
Li Yue gazed down at Liao Xiong impassively.
"I plead guilty..."
Liao Xiong trembled as he spoke.
In this court, where Divine Might surged like a mighty tide, he didn't have the courage to lie.
"Since that is so—"
"I sentence you to have your soul scattered to the winds."
Li Yue's voice was solemn and imposing.
As soon as he finished speaking,
Liao Xiong's soul, kneeling in the courtroom, scattered in an instant, reduced to nothing.
Liao Xiu'er and Liao Chengping both looked moved, delighted, and exhilarated.
At last—
At last, they had avenged themselves!
Five years.
A full five years had passed, and Liao Xiong, the murderer, had finally received the punishment he deserved!
At that very moment,
a saying came to mind.
Good deeds bring good rewards, and evil deeds bring evil rewards; it's not that retribution never comes, only that the time has not yet arrived!
"Tell Li Youming about this."
"He'll know what to do."
Li Yue gave the order.
"We humbly obey, my lord!"
Liao Xiu'er and Liao Chengping respectfully accepted the command, borrowing the phrasing from the stories they had heard.
With a flash—
Their figures vanished from the Divine Domain.
At the same moment, the gloomy courtroom that had filled the Divine Domain dissolved away, returning it to its original, empty state.
Li Yue still preferred the Divine Domain as it had been at first.
Empty, with everything suspended in midair.
"Now that I have Ghost Messengers—"
"They should have a place to work."
Li Yue mused.
The Divine Domain was his private space. Naturally, he couldn't let his Subordinate Gods, Ghost Messengers, and Yin Soldiers come and go as they pleased.
As a Subordinate Ninth Rank Orthodox Land God, he had the power to open an Underworld Dharma Domain.
The Underworld Dharma Domain—
was an office specifically for Subordinate Gods, Ghost Messengers, Yin Soldiers, and the like.
Its rank was naturally far below that of the Divine Domain.
But it wasn't part of the Mortal Realm, either. It was like another small pocket of space.
"To open an Underworld Dharma Domain three zhang long, three zhang wide, and one zhang high takes ten units of Divine Power..."
"But I can't skimp on Divine Power here."
He shook his head.
Seeing that he still had 101 units of Divine Power, he willed it.
At once, ten units of Divine Power flew out of him, flashed out of the Divine Domain, and landed beneath the Land God Temple.
In an instant—
A gloomy, sinister space slowly opened beneath the Land God Temple.
Dense Yin energy filled this space, and Yin energy from deep underground streamed into it without end.
The Underworld Dharma Domain lay beneath the earth, outside the Mortal Realm.
His Divine Domain, meanwhile, sat above the Underworld Dharma Domain, allowing him to look down easily on everything within it.
The Subordinate Gods, Yin Soldiers, Ghost Messengers, and others in the Underworld Dharma Domain could look up and see only the Divine Domain hanging overhead, towering like the sky. They couldn't see anything inside it.
"This will do for now."
"Once I have more Subordinate Gods, Yin Soldiers, and Ghost Messengers, I'll expand it."
He murmured to himself.
Then—
he turned his gaze to one side of the Divine Domain.
A huge Wolf Demon corpse lay there, still and silent.
It was the Wolf Demon from Thousand Wolf Mountain, whom he had easily killed during the day with a single cast of the Heavenly Thunder Art.
"The corpse of a second-rank Wolf Demon at the limit..."
"It should be worth some Divine Power."
His expression remained calm.
He opened the Deity Shop in Regional Trading and placed the Wolf Demon corpse inside.
At once—
the Deity Shop displayed the value of the headless wolf corpse.
"Seven units of Divine Power."
"Not bad."
A faint smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
Without hesitation, he sold the headless corpse to the Deity Shop.
Seven units of Divine Power appeared inside him out of thin air.
"I now have ninety-eight units of Divine Power in total."
He closed his eyes and began contemplating the Divine Technique, the Heavenly Thunder Art.
He had cast the Heavenly Thunder Art once during the day.
He had realized—
that although he could use this Divine Technique with ease,
he still wasn't especially proficient at it.
There were quite a few places where his execution was flawed.
He felt—
that if he could cast it perfectly, the power of the Heavenly Thunder Art would rise by a great deal.
"If I weren't short on Divine Power, practicing by casting it would actually be the best method..."
"Too bad the poor have to swallow their pride."
"For now, all I can do is simulate it in my mind."
He felt helpless.
Still, it was good to gradually make himself stronger.
After all—
aside from the Heavenly Thunder Art, the other three Divine Techniques he had learned—the Cloud and Mist Method, the Flight Method, and the Earth Escape Method—probably had the same problem.
Learning a Divine Technique didn't mean he could use it perfectly.
And only by executing a Divine Technique perfectly could he truly reach the limits of a Subordinate Ninth Rank Orthodox Land God!
A month passed in the blink of an eye.
Zhang Family Village and Liao Family Village, together with Chen Family Village, which had joined them earlier, had all but completely merged into Four Seas Village.
Every villager in Four Seas Village offered incense to Lord Zhangyue morning and evening.
Even those who lived far away had to face the Land God Temple and offer incense from afar.
Of course,
the most devout Believers came in person to offer incense at the Land God Temple.
News of Liao Xiong's crimes had spread like wildfire among the villagers of Four Seas Village: Lord Zhangyue had sent Ghost Messengers to seize his soul and sentenced him to have it scattered to the winds.
Liao Xiong's corpse had even been carried back for the villagers to see.
Nearly all the villagers had grown even more reverent toward Lord Zhangyue.
Lord Zhangyue had Ghost Messengers at his command. Anyone who did wrong would be sought out by them, and have their soul seized!
Who wouldn't be afraid after hearing that?
Three feet above your head, the gods are watching!
Good deeds bring good rewards, and evil deeds bring evil rewards; it's not that retribution never comes, only that the time has not yet arrived!
These two sayings spread far and wide through Four Seas Village, and everyone believed them deeply.
This incident had also made the villagers of Four Seas Village more devout in their faith.
After all—
Divine Grace was as vast as the sea!
Divine Might was as fearsome as a prison!
Divine Grace brought joy to Believers, while Divine Might filled them with fear.
When joy and fear came together, their faith naturally grew more devout.
"Deming, go tell the village head and the others to come to a meeting."
Li Youming stepped out of his room, looked at his second son, Li Deming, and gave the order.
A month ago, he had received a Divine Oracle: within three months, he had to increase the number of Believers to more than fifteen hundred.
All fifteen hundred had to be villagers of Four Seas Village, settled in the village.
It was a very difficult task.
Four Seas Village had only a little over eight hundred people, leaving a huge shortfall.
And theirs was the only village in the surrounding area.
To expand—
they would have to attract people from outside the area to join Four Seas Village.
That would not be easy.
After all—
would anyone believe you if you told them your village was protected by a Deity?
That was why he had spent a full month preparing.
Now, at last, he could begin.
"This time—"
"I'll still carry out Lord Zhangyue's Divine Oracle to perfection..."
Li Youming thought to himself, his gaze unwavering.
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