"Xiaotian, withdraw your divine ability."
The cool voice rang out.
Inside the Ruined Temple, the savage pressure that had nearly left Yin Jiao and Yin Hong unable to breathe instantly dissipated by half.
Yin Jiao abruptly looked up.
A young man in black robes stepped over the shattered threshold and walked slowly into the temple.
The divine markings between his brows glimmered faintly. He radiated not a trace of killing intent, yet the demonic aura lingering on the three demon corpses collapsed on its own.
The black dog that had just been calling himself "this emperor" immediately lowered his ears.
The dark-gold vertical marking between his brows closed.
He forcibly swallowed back all his ferocity.
He trotted over to the black-robed young man's feet, rubbed his head against the hem of his robes, and gave a low whine.
"You finally came."
Xiaotian Dog looked up, a hint of displeasure in his glossy black eyes.
"They brought demons right to the temple door and made such a racket that this emperor couldn't sleep peacefully. This emperor noticed the Human King's aura on them, so I planned to keep them here tending the incense until you returned to deal with them, Master."
Yang Jian lowered his eyes to him, his brow twitching slightly.
Ever since this dog had received his master's Primordial Blood Seal and awakened his God-Devouring Fangs, he had grown bolder by the day.
"This temple is the incense anchor Master established in the mortal world."
Yang Jian curled a finger and lightly tapped Xiaotian Dog on the head.
"And you dared to throw your weight around here?"
Thump.
It was not a hard blow.
Yet Xiaotian Dog yelped and immediately crouched down, clutching his head.
"I know, I know."
"Next time, this emperor... next time, I'll definitely wait for your instructions, Master."
Yin Jiao's hand froze in midair around his broken saber.
Yin Hong leaned behind him, his throat bobbing, unable to utter a word for a long while.
They had personally watched this black dog swallow the souls of three demons in a single gulp.
That ferocity had frightened even the sorcerers from the State Preceptor's Residence into fleeing for their lives.
Yet now, before this black-robed young man, he did not even dare argue.
Yin Jiao stared fixedly at Yang Jian.
Suddenly, a name exploded in his mind.
Yang Jian!
He had heard that name in secret palace reports.
The battle at Guanjiangkou, the battle at Peach Mountain-the Heavenly Court had suffered defeat after defeat. A hundred thousand troops of the Heavenly River Navy had met crushing defeat, and even the Heavenly Emperor's Edict had been blasted apart.
Rumor had it that the youth possessed a divine eye on his forehead and a body powerful enough to shake immortals and gods.
His royal father had once flown into a rage in the Star-Picking Tower. Shen Gongbao had also mentioned this man, saying that behind him stood a mysterious master whose identity even Saints could not divine.
Yin Jiao's breathing suddenly quickened.
If even half the rumors were true, this black-robed young man was someone capable of confronting the Heavenly Court head-on.
But soon, Yin Jiao shifted his gaze away from Yang Jian.
He looked toward the dust-covered divine statue inside the temple.
Xiaotian revered Yang Jian.
Yet Yang Jian called the person behind the divine statue his master.
The being who could truly change their fate stood behind this statue.
An opportunity.
This was the only path to survival for the two brothers.
And their only chance to exact payment for the blood debt owed to their mother.
Thud!
Yin Jiao abruptly turned and dropped to his knees before the divine statue.
Yin Hong froze, then knelt alongside him.
Bang!
Yin Jiao slammed his forehead against the cold floor tiles.
Blood immediately seeped out, running down along his brow.
He did not raise a hand to wipe it away.
"Yin Jiao, prince of Yin Shang, bows before the exalted god!"
Yin Hong's eyes reddened, and he too forcefully struck his forehead against the floor.
"Yin Hong, prince of Yin Shang, bows before the exalted god!"
Their voices echoed through the Ruined Temple.
Outside the temple, a cold wind howled through the Mass Burial Grounds.
Inside, the divine statue still gazed downward, as though it had slumbered for countless ages.
Yin Jiao raised his bloodstained face, nothing remaining in his eyes but hatred and defiance.
"The Demon Consort has thrown the palace into chaos and brought calamity upon the realm!"
"Our mother was harmed, and her fate remains unknown. Our own father ordered us hunted down, and the entire city is against us!"
"Chaoge has become a demon's nest, and evil creatures are eating away at Great Shang's national fortune."
"We brothers do not seek merely to cling to life!"
He kowtowed again.
This time, even the floor tile cracked beneath his forehead.
"We only beg the exalted god to show mercy and grant us a path to vengeance!"
"We are willing to swear upon our human king bloodline, offer up all the karma bound to our lives, and become disciples of the exalted god!"
Yin Hong's voice trembled, but he did not shrink back.
"If we can slay the Demon Consort with our own hands, rescue our mother, and cleanse Chaoge, we brothers will offer you Yin Shang's incense worship and protect your Dao lineage for generations!"
"Please grant our wish, exalted god!"
"Please grant our wish, exalted god!"
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
The brothers kowtowed again and again.
Blood stained the floor tiles red.
The blows sounded heavy and resolute, as though they meant to hammer every last ounce of hatred in their chests into the incense ash before the divine statue.
Yang Jian stood to one side without stopping them.
As he watched Yin Jiao and Yin Hong, a trace of complicated emotion flickered in his eyes.
He, too, had once known such despair.
His father and elder brother had been killed, his mother imprisoned, his sister unconscious, and he had fled into the Ruined Temple at Guanjiangkou with Yang Chan on his back.
That night, he too had knelt before his master's divine statue, willing to give everything just to save his mother and protect his sister.
Now these two youths had reached the same dead end.
But what lay behind them concerned more than a single family.
It was Yin Shang's national fortune.
It was the embers of Humanity's Dao.
Xiaotian Dog also quieted down.
He stared at the two youths with bloodstained foreheads, a little confusion entering his eyes.
He did not understand the rise and fall of human dynasties.
But he could smell the ruthless determination in the flames of their lives.
That scent was much like Yang Jian's when he had first knelt in the temple.
As Yin Jiao and Yin Hong continued to kowtow,
the incense ash inside the Ruined Temple's incense burner, cold for many years, suddenly stirred.
A speck of violet light glowed deep within the ash.
Then an invisible surge of vow power rushed out of the brothers' bodies.
Human king bloodline.
Fortune of Yin Shang orthodoxy.
An obsession with vengeance.
The three intertwined, forming a strand of incense worship of extraordinary weight.
Just as this incense worship was about to rise into the Heavenly Dao, a strand of Primordial Purple Patterns suddenly appeared on the divine statue's surface.
The purple patterns flashed.
The incense worship was intercepted.
It did not
disperse into the Three Realms.
Nor did it return to the Heavenly Dao.
Instead, following the incense anchor Gu Changqing had established beforehand, it flowed silently toward Guanjiangkou.
Yang Jian looked up, his gaze shifting slightly.
"Master has accepted it."
Yin Jiao and Yin Hong shuddered.
In the next instant, the royal flames of life in their chests, nearly extinguished beneath the pressure of calamity qi, actually began burning anew.
The main temple at Guanjiangkou.
Deep within the Primordial Divine Realm.
Gu Changqing sat cross-legged before the divine statue and slowly opened his eyes.
Everything happening in the Ruined Temple outside Chaoge City was reflected in his gaze.
Yin Jiao.
Yin Hong.
The two seeds of Humanity's Dao fortune originally earmarked by the Chan Sect had now willingly knelt before his divine statue.
More precious still, what they brought was no ordinary incense worship.
It was a Tribulation Key woven from human king bloodline, dynastic fortune, and an obsession with vengeance.
This key was enough to pry open the Investiture of the Gods' Humanity's Dao game.
The corners of Gu Changqing's lips lifted slightly.
Guangchengzi and Chijingzi were still on their way to Chaoge.
Unfortunately, they were already too late.
"The Investiture of the Gods Tribulation, evil creatures devouring the nation, Humanity's Dao in decline."
Gu Changqing turned his gaze toward Chaoge.
"I will not save a rotten dynasty, but through you two, I can let Humanity's Dao blaze with a keen edge once more."
A moment later, a system notification sounded.
[Ding! Key Tribulation figures Yin Jiao and Yin Hong have offered the karma of their Human King's fortune and request to become the host's disciples!] [The request meets the criteria for a "Tribulation-level investment"!] [Accept this offering of incense worship, formally intervene in Yin Shang's karma, and activate the main quest "Humanity's Dao's Struggle for the Dragon"?] [Notice: Upon successfully accepting these disciples, Guangchengzi's and Chijingzi's predetermined master-disciple karma will shift!]
Gu Changqing did not hesitate.
"Accept."
As his words fell,
he raised a finger and, across ten thousand miles of mountains and rivers, lightly pointed toward the Ruined Temple outside Chaoge City.
Boom!
Inside the Ruined Temple, the dust-covered divine statue abruptly opened its eyes.
A beam of primordial violet light descended, instantly enveloping Yin Jiao and Yin Hong.
The brothers felt their royal blood boil. Their destinies, which calamity qi had been gnawing away, were forcibly dragged back by an invisible hand.
Before the divine statue, an indifferent, majestic voice rang out.
"Yin Jiao, Yin Hong."
"If you enter my tutelage, there will be no turning back."
"The Demon Consort wants to kill you, the Heavenly Court will set its sights on you, and the Chan Sect will come to seize you."
"Once you bow, you must stake your human king bloodline to fight for a path that defies Heaven."
Yin Jiao abruptly raised his head.
Blood still flowed from his forehead, but not a trace of fear remained in his eyes.
"Your disciple Yin Jiao is willing to bow!"
Yin Hong clenched his teeth and followed him in a kowtow.
"Your disciple Yin Hong is willing to bow!"