On the northern side of the beach, a figure was hunched over, stealthily fleeing toward the dense forest on the shore.
It was none other than Chen Chao, the leader of the rogue army.
Clutching his bleeding shoulder, he had even lost one of his boots. He stumbled barefoot over the sharp gravel, not daring to stop for even a second.
Having just witnessed the Divine Lady appear from the sea riding a giant fish, freeze the sea beast into an ice sculpture with a wave of Her hand, and use that very ice sculpture to crush Zhu Huairen to death on the shore, he was already scared out of his wits. He had never expected a grand illusionist's illusion to be this terrifying.
It was all Zhu Huairen's fault. He had solemnly sworn that he could dispel a grand illusionist's illusion. Dispel my foot!
At this moment, he only wanted to use the cover of the night and the reefs to escape this rocky beach and save his life.
Pei Du's eyes narrowed, and he raised his hand to order.
“Archers—”
The creaking sound of bowstrings being drawn echoed in unison, and a dozen arrows were aimed at the fleeing figure.
Just as Pei Du was about to order the archers to fire, Chen Chao suddenly crashed into an invisible wall.
“Bang—”
With a dull thud, Chen Chao was sent flying backward, landing heavily on his back on the sand.
“What... what is going on?” He scrambled to his feet, refusing to believe it, and rushed forward again, desperately pounding on the invisible wall.
“Let me out! Let me out!”
Fear gradually took over his mind. He turned to look at the giant fish and the Divine Lady on the sea, blustering, “This must be your doing! Stop playing tricks! There's no such thing as magic in this world, it's all just a trick to deceive people!”
“How dare you show disrespect to the Divine Lady!” This time, Pei Du truly felt a murderous intent toward Chen Chao.
Yao Sanyi opened his mouth to speak but hesitated.
In truth, he was also skeptical of the Divine Lady.
Initially, the phenomenon in Wuling City, where paper transformed by the tens of thousands and voices reached a thousand households, had made him begin to believe that the Divine Lady truly existed.
But seeing Zhu Huairen use the sound of a flute to control an octopus and turn it into a terrifying sea beast made him realize that in the way of illusions, there would always be someone better.
This Divine Lady was highly likely just a grand illusionist.
But none of that mattered. What mattered was that he saw Noble Spirit in these believers of the Divine Lady.
Judging by how the believers conducted themselves, how could the deity they worshipped possibly be evil?
When he first learned illusions, his master had taught him a saying: “Illusions are a mix of truth and falsehood; if you believe, they are real; if you do not, they are false.”
If everyone believed Her illusions were real, then what difference was there between Her illusions and celestial magic?
On the other side, Chen Chao was pinned to the ground by two soldiers, his face swollen like a pig's head.
“Military Advisor Pei, what should we do with this man?”
Pei Du's gaze lingered on Chen Chao for a moment. After a brief pause, he said in a deep voice, “Do not let him die. Since the Divine Lady stopped him, She might have questions for him.”
Just as he finished speaking, the transparent wall of light suddenly made a soft cracking sound, like ice splitting.
Everyone followed the sound.
They saw countless spiderweb-like cracks appear on the wall of light not far away, rapidly spreading from the center to the edges, with a faint, deep blue light seeping out of every crack.
Pei Du frowned and said, “Back away.”
Just as everyone retreated a hundred meters, the wall of light shattered. Tens of thousands of shards floated in mid-air, shimmering with light.
“Military Advisor Pei, this...”
Before the soldier could finish his sentence, the shards of the wall of light flew up on their own, merging back together before their eyes and gradually taking on a colossal shape.
Out of the void, a giant gate slowly emerged.
The gate was over ten zhang high, completely pitch-black, and its surface was covered in dense, unintelligible runes.
Right in the center of the gate was a massive beast head with eyes like bronze bells, holding a dark gold ring in its mouth.
In the next second, the gate descended onto the rocky beach.
It landed with a deafening crash, kicking up a massive cloud of sand and dust.
Everyone instinctively raised their hands to shield their eyes.
The swirling dust obscured the moonlight, making it feel as if the entire world had vanished, leaving only the giant black gate standing before them.
The dust settled.
The gate swung open, and the Divine Lady stepped out from within.
She wore a magnificent black and gold robe with wide sleeves, the collar and cuffs embroidered with exquisite golden cloud patterns.
Atop Her head was the twelve-tasseled imperial crown. The beaded tassels swayed gently with Her steps, radiating an overwhelming pressure.
Almost the moment She appeared, everyone instinctively knelt down, not daring to look directly at Her.
Yao Sanyi knelt among the crowd as well, cold sweat continuously dripping from his forehead onto the sand.
Could a grand illusionist truly possess such pressure?
In an instant, he fell into deep doubt about his previous assumption, his mind in complete disarray.
The Divine Lady lowered Her eyes, Her gaze calmly sweeping over the people kneeling on the beach, Her face obscured behind the beaded veil.
She spoke, Her voice as cold as frost.
“The guilty shall enter Avici Hell.”
As soon as She spoke, black mist began to churn wildly inside the eerie, giant gate behind Her.
Immediately after, countless pale, skeletal hands with twisted knuckles reached out from the black mist inside the gate.
Then came the heads.
One by one, skeletal ghouls crawled out of the gate, their bodies enveloped in black mist.
The Zhenbei Army watched this scene.
Their curiosity outweighed their fear.
Some even wondered in their hearts if the Divine Lady had shown mercy, allowing the innocent people killed by Chen Chao and his men to return from Avici Hell to seek their revenge.
The Wuling commoners in the tents had never seen such a sight, and screams instantly echoed across the rocky beach.
“Ghosts! There are ghosts...”
“Help...”
Seeing this, Pei Du quickly ordered the soldiers to calm them down so they wouldn't run around and cause a stampede.
The first to be targeted by the ghouls was Chen Chao.
Chen Chao felt a sudden chill on his shoulder. Looking down, he saw several grayish-black, skeletal hands clawing onto his back.
“Aaaaaah—”
He screamed in agony as he was dragged away by the ghouls.
Gradually, the commoners in the camp noticed, “Those ghouls only seem to grab the bad guys, they aren't touching us.”
“Yes, yes, I saw it too! The big bully from our village was also dragged away by the ghouls. Retribution!”
Before long.
Once the ghouls had dragged the last guilty person inside, they vanished along with the giant gate.
The Divine Lady slowly walked toward the camp.
As She walked, Her black and gold wide-sleeved robe silently transformed into a moon-white dress.
“Evil reaps evil, and good shall reap good.”
With a gentle wave of Her hand.
The soldiers of the Zhenbei Army, the Wuling commoners hiding in the tents, Zhu Jingzhe standing on the shore, as well as Pei Du and Yao Sanyi—everyone suddenly found a steaming bowl of white porridge appearing in their hands out of thin air.
“Is... is this real?” The Wuling commoners stared at the white porridge in their hands in disbelief.
“This can't be an illusion!”
Yao Sanyi held the white porridge and murmured to himself.
“She truly is a deity...”
While everyone was shocked by the white porridge, the little fox, remaining invisible, rested on Yun Shu's shoulder and told her something.
“Host, I've discovered that Shen Yu and the others are leading several large ships along the waterway to transport grain to Wuling Prefecture.”
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