The ripples of this power first touched the most desolate corner of the empire's border - Blackstone Village.
A mouthful of Withered Well, which had been abandoned for decades, leaked a steady stream of milky white liquid without warning in the middle of the night.
It is not as clear as well water, but has a viscous texture and exudes a light floral fragrance that is soothing.
At first, there was only one child who was playing at night and fell down. In desperation, he used the "strange water" in the well to clean the wound.
The next morning, the bone-deep wound on his knee had scabbed and healed, leaving only a shallow pink line of new flesh.
The news spread like wildfire.
Within three days, Blackstone Village was boiling.
The villagers regarded this as a miracle, a sweet rain dropped by the legendary "Kaguya Empress" who created this earth out of compassion for the world.
They spontaneously built a simple altar beside the well, burned incense day and night, knelt down and prayed, and worshiped the milky white liquid as "Divine Dew".
More and more "miracles" began to take place: stubborn diseases that had been lingering for many years were healed overnight, declining crops regained their vitality, and even a girl who was born blind could vaguely see light and shadow after wiping her eyes with "Divine Dew".
Fanatic belief quickly gathered, and rumors that "Kaguya Empress" was about to return to the world spread back to the new capital of the empire along the trade routes.
"Sir, this is a heresy that shakes the foundation of the country!" Baba punched the table heavily in the New Hall's conference hall, making a loud and dull sound.
"We must send troops immediately to suppress it and show off the leader's head to the public. Otherwise, within half a month, the entire border will fall into the fanatical worship of false gods!"
On the throne, Xuan just quietly watched the real-time image returned on the light screen, which showed the pious and ecstatic faces of the villagers Blackstone Village.
His slender fingers gently tapped the armrest, and his voice was so steady that no waves could be heard. "Let them worship."
Baba was stunned for a moment, thinking he heard wrongly, "Sir?"
"I said, let them worship." Xuan's lips curved in an arc that no one could understand, "But, they are not allowed to 'hear' any so-called oracle."
He has already understood the truth.
The so-called "Divine Dew" is nothing but the juice secreted by the unconscious resuscitation of the Divine Tree stumps sleeping deep underground after sensing the violent fluctuations of the Kaguya remnants in his body.
It does contain a trace of the vitality of creation, but it also carries the will of Kaguya that can distort all living things.
This is both a crisis and an excellent testing ground.
"Chiyo." Xuan's voice sounded.
In the shadows, a figure emerged silently, kneeling on one knee. "My subordinate is here."
"Pretend to be a wandering healer and go to Blackstone Village. I want a complete sample of the liquid, as well as... precise data on its effects on the human body."
"As you command." Before he finished speaking, Chiyo's figure had merged into the darkness again, as if it had never appeared before.
Three days later, a mysterious female doctor wearing a veil and carrying a medicine box came to Blackstone Village.
She has excellent medical skills and showed a strong interest in "Divine Dew", and soon won the trust of the villagers.
Chiyo quietly collected dozens of samples and conducted emergency analysis using micro-equipment in the dead of night.
The results were completely consistent with Xuan's prediction.
The healing effect of Divine Tree juice is real, but the trace amounts of psychoactive toxins contained in it will subtly transform the body of the drinker.
For those who have been exposed to it for a long time, the pupils will gradually lose color and become a layer of inorganic gray, and the emotional response will become more dull and indifferent.
This is the early sign of "White Zetsu ization".
They are degenerating from "human beings" into nourishment for Divine Tree.
Chiyo quietly mixed a small packet of special gray spore powder into the largest incense burner in the center of the altar.
The spores are colorless and odorless, and once burned, they release particles that can effectively interfere with low-level mental reactions.
After doing all this, under the cover of night, she buried three palm-sized miniature self-destruction puppets like nails deep in the ground directly under the altar.
Everything is ready, just waiting for the fish to take the bait.
The wait didn't last long.
On the seventh night, the moon is in the middle of the sky.
More than three hundred believers gathered around the altar, and the atmosphere reached its peak of fanaticism.
They chanted the name "Kaguya Empress" and poured buckets of "Divine Dew" on their bodies, performing a bizarre baptism.
At this moment, a white-haired old woman in the crowd suddenly twitched violently and fell straight to the ground.
Her eyes completely turned pure white, and what came out of her mouth was no longer her own voice, but an ancient, hoarse mantra that seemed to have traveled through the ages. "When the moon rises... Allah... comes..."
The crowd stood still for a moment, and then erupted into even more fervor like a roaring tsunami.
They all knelt down and threw themselves on the ground, shouting "Welcome the empress", and the scene was completely out of control.
At the edge of the crowd, Chiyo, disguised as a doctor, had a stern look in his eyes.
Coming!
This is not a simple mental influence, but that residual thought is so powerful that it can be possessed remotely through the medium of Divine Tree!
She no longer hesitated and pressed her right hand gently on her sleeve.
Boom--!!!
Three miniature puppets buried deep under the altar detonated simultaneously.
The violent explosion is not intended to kill, but to create a powerful air wave that overturns everything.
The altar was instantly torn apart, incense burners, tributes, and stones were thrown high into the air. The fanatical believers were also knocked off their feet by the sudden shock wave.
In the chaos, no one noticed that the instantaneous high temperature generated by the explosion activated the special material of the puppet's shell, and an invisible high-voltage pulse current centered on the altar swept across the entire place.
All those affected felt numb all over, their vision went dark, and they fainted completely.
Almost at the same moment as the explosion sounded, Baba, who had been waiting outside the village for a long time, led a team of black-armored soldiers and rushed into the village like a torrent of steel.
They moved quickly and controlled all the unconscious villagers.
Baba strode to the charred remains of the altar and grabbed the five organizers who had shouted the loudest just now and were specially marked by Chiyo.
"Sorcery confuses the public and deceives people's hearts. According to the laws of the empire, you should be killed!"
The cold voice fell, the hand raised the knife, and the five heads rolled to the ground, and the ruins of the altar were dyed red with blood.
Then, Baba walked over to the old woman who was possessed first and had passed out.
Under the horrified gaze of all the villagers who had been forcibly awakened, he pulled out a sharp saber and cut open the old woman's skull without hesitation.
There was no brain matter overflowing as expected, instead, there was a snow-white thing like a nerve bundle, slowly squirming in the old woman's brain tissue.
"See clearly!" Baba picked up the parasite with the tip of the knife, raised it high, and his voice hit the hearts of every villager like ice, "This is not a miracle, it is rot! What you kneel down to worship day and night is just a root that eats people's brains!"
The villagers screamed in horror, their stomachs churning as they looked at the white monster twisting on the tip of the knife.
Fear instantly overwhelmed faith.
From then on, no one in Blackstone Village dared to mention the word "Kaguya".
Within the New Hall, Xuan Jing quietly watched the entire image on the light screen and nodded with satisfaction.
Although Baba's method is crude, it is the most effective way to deal with ignorance.
"Chiyo," he said calmly, "Bring that parasite back alive and put it into the 'Zero' culture tank."
"Yes." Chiyo responded calmly as always from the communicator.
Xuan's eyes flashed with excitement and reason.
What he wants to study is not only how Divine Tree responds to Cannian's instructions, but also to thoroughly master the manufacturing technology of this "pseudo-miracle".
In the future empire, what the people need is not the cold truth, but a completely controllable miracle created by him.
That night, Xuan walked alone into the deepest underground chamber of the New Hall.
The place is empty and cold, with only a huge special container in the center emitting a faint blue light.
Inside the container, the fragment of Kaguya that he stripped out of his own body was sealed.
Chiyo has sent the living parasite over, and it is currently being imprisoned in a small energy field.
Xuan picked up the force field and without any hesitation, threw it directly into the container of residual fragments.
The moment the two came into contact, a sudden change occurred!
The energy reading of the entire secret room instantly exploded, and a translucent Kaguya phantom composed of light and shadow appeared out of thin air.
Her face was blurry, but her arrogance and coldness that dominated the world were so real that it was suffocating.
An ethereal voice sounded directly in Xuan's mind, "You are resisting fate... but you are imitating it."
Xuan stared at the shadow. After a moment, he suddenly grinned, with a hint of madness and disdain in his smile, "You are right."
The next second, a strange bloody brilliance suddenly exploded in his pupils, and the power named [Myriad Phenomena Devouring System] in his body was operating at full power like never before!
An indescribable terrifying suction force erupted from his eyes, aiming directly at the container in front of him!
"But imitation is for transcendence!"
The roar echoed through the secret room!
Spider web-like cracks appeared on the surface of the sturdy special container, and the translucent Kaguya shadow let out a silent scream. Together with the parasite, the residual fragments, and the material and energy of the entire container, they were forcibly torn and twisted by a force that was so arrogant and unreasonable that they turned into a torrent and poured into Xuan's eyes!
The secret room shook violently, and the ground was cracked, as if it could not withstand the force.
After an unknown amount of time, when everything calmed down, Xuan slowly raised his head.
His right eye was still deep black, while a mysterious and incomplete reincarnation pattern suddenly appeared in the left pupil.
That was the first time he actively "forged" a miracle without resorting to any external force, relying solely on his own will.
These eyes will witness the complete end of an old era.
And the prologue of a new era written by him will be engraved in the world in three days.