A Two-Pronged Approach

Upon hearing Yin Yunze utter the name of the Qingling County City God, Guo Jing's eyes once again plunged into darkness.

Fortunately, Guo Jing has now cultivated the Asura Battle Body and survived the Golden Core Lightning Tribulation, so the resentment will no longer cloud his mind as it did before.

Although there are still some effects, I was able to overcome them with willpower.

Seeing Guo Jing's state, Yin Yunze shook his head slightly and said, "You call yourself a top scholar! When faced with a problem, you don't think of using your pen, which you scholars are best at, but only think of using your fists! Using your weaknesses to attack their strengths, how can you expect to achieve anything?"

"Your Majesty is right!"

Hearing Yin Yunze say that, Guo Jing felt a little ashamed.

Indeed, as a scholar who had achieved the highest rank in the imperial examinations, Guo Jing had considered various ways to take revenge on the City God over the past few years.

However, they really didn't use the methods that scholars would typically employ; instead, they resorted to all sorts of conspiracies, tricks, or armed assassinations.

Although resentment may have affected his mind, he never once considered using the pen, a tool typically used by scholars, which is indeed somewhat forgetting his roots.

"Guo Jing knows she was wrong!" After slowly regaining her composure, Guo Jing looked at Yin Yunze and asked, "Your Majesty, what exactly should I do?"

Guo Jing was delighted to hear that Yin Yunze was preparing to take action against the City God.

But upon closer examination, how could City God with a history of seven hundred years be overthrown by a mere proclamation denouncing traitors?

To reiterate, if it were that easy, one could simply write an article to verbally attack the City God, and the City God would have been replaced long ago.

"Besides the proclamation denouncing the traitor, the most important thing I need you to do is find someone to search for evidence of the City God's crimes. Then you need to weave this evidence into a story in the simplest and most understandable language."

Yin Yunze had already planned this out, and smoothly replied, "Then give me the compiled stories, I'll compile them into a book, and then print and distribute them. At that time, you can find some scholars you know—"

Whether you appeal to their emotions, reason with them, or even tempt them with benefits, I need you to distribute these stories to every village in Qingling County. From eighty-year-old elders to eight-year-old children, make sure everyone knows them!

As a modern person, Yin Yunze is all too aware of the effects of information warfare. And isn't the struggle between the Divine Dao and the divine also a struggle for the hearts and minds of the people?

Upon hearing this, Guo Jing was momentarily confused and asked, "Your Majesty, is that all? Ah, no—Your Majesty, I don't doubt your intentions, but will what you're doing really harm the City God?"

"Yes and no—"

Yin Yunze didn't actually want to be the riddle solver, but that was the reality. This simple war of words alone couldn't truly harm the City God: "Even if we succeed this time, it won't do anything to harm the City God."

"Then—" Hearing Yin Yunze's answer, Guo Jing was even more puzzled and stopped guessing. "Please enlighten me, Your Majesty!"

"Actually, the biggest difficulty we face in dealing with the City God is not defeating him, but rather stripping away his two layers of skin as a god—"

Yin Yunze wasn't exaggerating when he said that.

Although when Yin Yunze first met the City God, he was just a minor village god who had barely been officially appointed as a deity.

As a newly appointed village god whose escape route is cut off, he naturally sees the City God as if he were seeing a high mountain.

However, under Yin Yunze's planning, he has gathered the faith of eight counties, and the number of Yin Yunze followers has surpassed that of a single County City God.

In a pure battle of Divine Dao power, Yin Yunze might not be able to win, but he would be more than capable of protecting himself.

If he added the munitions from a military base, along with that set of Dark Heavenly Lightning Flag, Yin Yunze was fully confident of victory.

But the problem is, defeating the County City God is only the beginning. The key is how to kill him.

With the imperial edict of the Great Wei as its foundation and the faith of the people of Qingling County as its basis, this is the City God's two layers of immortal golden body.

Protected by these two layers of immortality, even if Yin Yunze could defeat the City God a hundred or a thousand times, it would be to no avail.

Without strength exceeding that of the City God by one major realm, the City God might be defeated, injured, or even fall into a deep sleep at the same level, but he would never die.

Of course, simply being immortal doesn't have much practical use.

Beat him until he is on the verge of death and falls into a deep sleep, then seal the City God away so that he will never have the chance to come out again in his lifetime, which in a sense is equivalent to killing him.

The problem is, Yin Yunze doesn't have any powerful backers, but the City God does!

Yin Yunze only needs to deal with the County City God of Qingling County.

But behind this County City God stands the Prefectural City God of Anqing Prefecture, and above that, the state City God, and the capital City God of the entire country.

While the City God's faction might not be so corrupt as to involve mutual protection among officials, they are still part of the same system and, even if they don't respect the monks, they will respect the Buddha.

Therefore, Guo Jing believed that their difficulty in dealing with the City God lay in how to defeat City God.

But the real challenge lies in how to completely kill the Qingling County City God before he is discovered by the Prefectural City God.

To achieve this, Yin Yunze actually only had one chance to take action.

If this attempt fails and the Qingling County City God discovers something is wrong, he will definitely seek help from the Anqing Prefecture City God.

By then, even if the Anqing Prefecture City God doesn't help the Qingling County City God, he will definitely not allow Yin Yunze to kill him again.

On the contrary, if the Qingling County City God had been killed before the Anqing Prefecture City God made his move, things would have been much easier.

After all, given the capital Yin Yunze has demonstrated, no one would believe he doesn't have a powerful backer.

By relying on this non-existent powerful figure, Yin Yunze can truly live up to his reputation of being a fox borrowing the tiger's power.

Even if it couldn't intimidate the Prefectural City God, it would at least ensure his own safety.

Then, we'll present the evidence of the crimes committed by the Qingling County City God, and let all the people of the county prove that the County City God deserves to die.

Killing a City God and killing a damned scumbag are two different things.

When the time comes, first give the Prefectural City God a reason to back down, then let Yin Yunze lower his head and act compliant, conceding some benefits, and the matter will be over.

After all, if a person is dead and not a close relative or friend, then to others, their value is zero.

The Qingling County City God offended someone he shouldn't have; it was purely bad luck and a sign of poor character.

The Prefectural City God acted solely because they were members of the same system might not necessarily care much about any one of the dozen or so County City God.

But all of this depends on Yin Yunze being able to safely kill the Qingling County City God.

If the Qingling County City God were still alive, then the Prefectural City God would not stand idly by and allow an outsider like Yin Yunze to harm people in his City God system.

After all, at that time, the Prefectural City God couldn't let the feelings of the other County City God be chilled because of an outsider.

So the question then returns to how Yin Yunze could kill the Qingling County City God, given that the City God possessed two layers of immortality.

Yin Yunze's solution to this problem was: why not just strip away his two layers of immortality?

This proclamation against the traitor was Yin Yunze's step in stripping away the golden image of the City God in the hearts of the people.

In fact, ordinary people are not unaware of why they are living such miserable lives.

However, in the past, the City God was the greatest deity, and under his terrifying rule, no one dared to break the unspoken rules.

What Yin Yunze needs to do now is to tear down this facade and expose his crimes to everyone.

Once everyone clearly knows what the City God has done, even if the people are still afraid, they will feel anger in their hearts.

What Yin Yunze needs to do then is to be the one who raises his arm and ignites the anger in everyone's hearts.

The City God once said that in his eyes, the common people were nothing more than ants.

But Yin Yunze knew very well that the term "City God" was too lofty and unattainable.

In the eyes of the City God, he could only see gods, or at most officials, but he could never see the people at the bottom of society.

In the City God's view, even if he accidentally stepped on a few ants, that was enough.

Catching a few ants occasionally for amusement is no big deal.

However, the City God forgot that, as an Incense God, their foundation lies precisely with these insignificant common people.

Indeed, in this world, people are as numerous as ants.

But the City God was unaware that the multitude of ants were not afraid of the Emperor's wrath.

If the people were to develop a rebellious spirit, not only would the City God of a small county be nothing more than a tyrant and traitor deserving of death, but even the emperor himself.

Of course, Yin Yunze wouldn't explain it so clearly to Guo Jing. After selectively and simply informing her of his intentions, Yin Yunze asked Guo Jing to first find someone to collect dirt on the City God.

They've already taken action on winning over the people's hearts; naturally, they can't neglect the legitimacy of the City God Orthodox God, Dynastic Karmic Luck.

As a key figure, the county magistrate Xu Hanxian came in handy.

In the past, Yin Yunze could easily reach Xu Hanxian through multiple channels.

But at this moment, the City God should have already received news of the deaths of Judge Qian and the four Yin General.

Therefore, Yin Yunze and the City God entered the most tense moment in their relationship.

Even if Yin Yunze went in Avatar, who knows what might happen?

In fact, if he wanted to be more convenient, Yin Yunze could have simply Spirit Descent Peng Shulan's body.

However, although the fluctuations of the Spirit Descent are lower than those of the Avatar, it is still inevitable that the City God will detect it.

Even if Yin Yunze could escape at any time, it was hard to guarantee that the City God wouldn't notice.

Therefore, for safety reasons, Yin Yunze cannot directly Spirit Descent onto Peng Shulan.

That would indeed allow them to see Xu Hanxian quickly, but if the City God noticed, Peng Shulan would likely be doomed.

Yin Yunze didn't want to cause Peng Shulan's death just because of this convenience.

However, Yin Yunze was worried that something unexpected might happen if he entrusted it to other ordinary people.

After all, even if it was just delivering a letter, Yin Yunze wouldn't feel comfortable sending such an important letter to an ordinary person.

Once exposed, and the City God finds out what Yin Yunze is planning, many things will become much more difficult.

So, after thinking it over, Yin Yunze realized that Zhang Yufei seemed to be the safest option.

However, Zhang Yufei is Yin Yunze's Subordinate Deity, and even if the position of Subordinate Deity is not currently held by her, it is still too dangerous.

Even if Zhang Yufei is not to go directly into the city, but only to go to the vicinity of Qingling County, she should find someone to locate Peng Shulan and then have Peng Shulan pass the message to Xu Hanxian.

However, being so close to the City God, it's hard to guarantee there's no danger.

Just as Yin Yunze was pondering who should be sent, he suddenly saw a wisp of annoying pink Power of Incense Offerings drifting past him.

With a slight thought, Yin Yunze focused his attention on the Qingnü Temple.

But then the one-eyed, one-armed woman connected to Zhang Yufei reappeared in the Qingnü Temple, burning incense and offering prayers.

Over the past few days, Yin Yunze has come to know that this person is Zhang Yufei's master, Zhang Liuyun.

During this period of time, Zhang Liuyun has been quite well-behaved, and she has never been seen to do anything improper.

For Yin Yunze, incense was burned three times a day, morning, noon, and night.

Although it's always pink incense sticks that pop up, it's really quite annoying.

On a whim, Yin Yunze realized that instead of leaving the tasks to Zhang Yufei, it would be better to have Zhang Liuyun help him.

Upon careful consideration, Yin Yunze realized that Zhang Liuyun was indeed a very good candidate.

Aside from the undeniably annoying pink incense, her faith, far exceeding that of most devout believers, was enough to reassure Yin Yunze of her loyalty.

Aside from their faith, they had no direct contact with Yin Yunze, which further reduced the risk of being discovered by the City God.

Most importantly, Yin Yunze and Zhang Liuyun weren't close, and Yin Yunze even had a somewhat negative first impression of her. Even if she died, Yin Yunze wouldn't be too heartbroken.

With that thought in mind, Yin Yunze walked out of the Dao Field and came to Zhang Liuyun.

However, before Yin Yunze could speak, Zhang Liuyun immediately noticed and exclaimed, "Your Lady Qingnü! You've finally agreed to appear before me! All my hard work has been worthwhile; I've finally been able to witness Your Highness's Celestial Person beauty."

Following Zhang Liuyun's words, her left hand swept over Yin Yunze with a highly aggressive gaze.

Judging from the meaning conveyed in that gaze, Yin Yunze felt that Zhang Liuyun probably didn't have much respect for the Celestial Person.

Slightly speechless, Yin Yunze felt that the person in front of her was more like a girl in a girl's body with the heart of a lecherous old man.

"There's something I need you to do for me."

Too lazy to try and get closer, Yin Yunze said directly, "If you complete it, I can give you some rewards."

What kind of reward is it?

Upon hearing Yin Yunze's words, Zhang Liuyun instinctively wanted to bargain.

However, Zhang Liuyun quickly realized her mistake and said awkwardly, "How could I dare to ask for any reward for serving Your Highness! If Your Highness would just glance at me a few more times, I would be willing to die for it!"

Okay, I've got it! If there really is a middle-aged man's heart inside, he'll definitely be a very flamboyant middle-aged man.

If it can be completed properly----

Yin Yunze naturally didn't believe the rest of the nonsense. After thinking for a moment, he pointed to Zhang Liuyun's aching right leg.

Yin Yunze is temporarily unable to repair her severed hand and eye.

However, this leg, which was improperly treated, can still be repaired.

Yin Yunze felt that having Zhang Liuyun make the trip for her and then repair her leg was a fair deal.

"I can..."

Just as Yin Yunze opened his mouth, Zhang Liuyun said with a look of delighted surprise, "Does Your Majesty wish to let me taste your jade-like hands?"