The Truth of the Gods

The Truth About the Gods

At Zhang Village Chief's shout, a low, eerie roar suddenly rose from deep within the mountain forest before the altar, rolling through the mountain's belly like muffled thunder.

ROAR!!!

The roar carried an inhuman pressure, making the great trees tremble faintly.

Then dozens—perhaps hundreds—of ghostly green will-o'-wisps silently lit up among the trees and slowly drifted over.

At once, the crowd before the altar dropped to their knees in a rustling wave, every one of them bowing until their foreheads thudded like pounding garlic.

"The god has revealed himself! The Mountain God has revealed himself!"

Zhang Village Chief's voice trembled, filled with shock, delight, and fear.

Yet Zhang Sanxian, standing silently in the darkness some distance away, "stared" toward the source of that roar, a mocking curve suddenly lifting at the corner of his mouth.

These foolish mortals' ears could not make it out, but he had clearly heard the trick hidden within that roar.

It had definitely not come from some huge creature. It was a fake roar produced by some specially made device.

And those so-called ghost fires were nothing more than cloth bundles soaked in phosphorus powder, suspended by iron wires and swayed among the trees to create an illusion.

The scrape of those thin wires against the leaves, along with the crackling of phosphorus fire scorching cloth, was crystal clear to Zhang Sanxian's ears.

This so-called Mountain God was merely using crude tricks to deceive ignorant villagers.

"The auspicious hour has arrived—present the brides!"

Zhang Village Chief rose to his feet, his face flushed with fervor as though he had become a divine messenger.

Two brawny household servants strode onto the altar with vicious expressions, about to drag away the two "brides" sprawled limply on the ground.

But at that very