Bian Chunchou was no fool. He immediately realized that Wen Xu-Xu's brain worked far better than his own. Since Wen Xu-Xu could say that, he must already have a fairly thorough plan in mind. "Tell me, what should we do?"
He had originally thought that Wen Xu-Xu's first priority would surely be protecting the civilians, but... it was not.
"Gather the civilians to pray for blessings—for 'Heaven.'"
"Ah?"
"When people are terrified, they easily develop the will to die. Give them something to do, and they'll naturally become busy, with no time left to panic." Besides, asking them to pray for the god they believed in—surely every civilian would be more than willing.
...My friend truly was a born king.
He quickly arranged for Wang Li to handle it with him. Just as Wen Xu-Xu had said, the civilians were leaderless and passively kneeling on the ground. But when they heard it was the command of the Heaven-appointed City Lord, that as long as they prayed devoutly enough, the gods would return to their side—
The civilians immediately believed it. They even voluntarily gathered in the largest square in the city to pray, every one of them as devout as Buddhist Cultivators, as though they could not see the apocalyptic sight before them.
Such devout power soon condensed into something tangible. Or perhaps "they" had originally been creations born from that force; powers of the same origin drew one another in, and the force that had been rampaging and collapsing rapidly gathered together.
It quickly condensed into a mass of black clouds and mist. Strands of white light faintly emerged within it, only to be swallowed and strangled by the black mist again moments later.
But the civilians' mental power flowed without end, so the white light seemed equally impossible