Zhutuolan, Elephant City.
Upon a high stone platform, a middle-aged scholar sat loftily, expounding the meanings and principles of the classics. Below the platform sat a crowd, all listening with rapt attention.
This scene ought to have been peaceful, yet judging by appearances alone, several people at the front were hardly good folk. Some were vicious-looking men, others seductive and sinister women. There were even several ferocious dogs and other wild beasts, sitting and listening like humans.
All of them wore devout expressions as they quietly listened to the middle-aged scholar teach from the platform.
That middle-aged scholar was none other than the incarnation of Qiu Yan's Black Sha Half-Body. Over nearly a year, he had spread the teachings of the Human Path throughout Zhutuolan. Since he had imprisoned the local gods, matters had proceeded rather smoothly, and quite a few people had come to understand the power of the Human Path's teachings.
Yet this place had originally been the territory of two other divine systems. Those two transcendent powers competed here for incense offerings, treating the local people as their foundation, like cattle and sheep penned in enclosures. For thousands upon thousands of years, the people had remained under their control, becoming a steady source of incense offerings for the transcendent powers behind both sides.
Qiu Yan's spreading of the Human Path's classics and principles here was bound to alarm the forces behind them, but matters had not yet developed to that point.
As he spoke, Qiu Yan suddenly fell silent.
The people below looked as though they had awoken from a dream. They focused on Qiu Yan in confusion, for he had been speaking at a crucial point, and naturally they did not wish him to stop now.
After saying this, Qiu Yan rose from the platform and