"Activate the Nine Provinces Netherworld Altar!"
"Proclaim to all under heaven: the Netherworld has crossed the boundary, and the Great Calamity is upon us!"
"Let every hero under heaven come to Demon City! Let the entire nation fight the ghosts!"
The white-bearded elder's ringing declarations exploded like ten thousand thunderclaps above the spacious, luxurious terrace of the City God Headquarters.
Pei Yanlai of the Pro-Western Faction, the Lu Family elder of the Anti-Western Faction, and the Shen Family patriarch of the Neutral Faction—these ten Powerful Elders normally fought both openly and in secret over the distribution of power within the Demon City City God Headquarters, wishing they could swallow one another alive. Yet the instant they heard the words "Nine Provinces Netherworld Altar," they all fell into deathly silence.
They knew all too well what this meant.
The Great Xin Dynasty's three hundred and sixty-five City God Temples were scattered throughout the Nine Provinces, across every province and county.
To ordinary mortals, these City God Temples were merely shrines with clay statues, places to burn incense during festivals and pray for favorable winds and timely rain.
To ordinary practitioners, these City God Temples were local outposts established by the Demon City headquarters to suppress low-level evil spirits and gather intelligence.
But only these ten core elders, who stood at the very pinnacle of the City God hierarchy, knew the true purpose of those three hundred and sixty-five City God Temples.
They were no ordinary temples. They formed an unparalleled grand formation, carved into the Great Xin Dynasty's territory by successive Great Heavenly Venerable City Gods, who had poured their hearts and souls into it since the founding of the Sacred Dynasty.
The three hundred and sixty-five City God Temples were three hundred and sixty-five formation nodes.
Besides forming an evil-suppressing