Previously, there were three black shadows.
He had already deduced the identity of the first black shadow—it was highly likely the Goddess of Harvest.
She was the local deity whose worship even the War God of Great Wei had failed to completely eradicate back then.
The second was the sludge evil god summoned by the Black Death Lolita. Judging by its reaction at the time, it was highly likely a vassal of the Goddess of Harvest.
This was evident from how it had remained inseparable from the Goddess of Harvest ever since it entered the divine kingdom.
The last poor thing was the Fire God worshipped by the Rong Tribe, which was also the only deity he had ever invoked using 【Invoking the God】.
Yin Yang also had a rough hypothesis regarding the conditions required for these black shadows to enter his divine kingdom.
Simply put, the places Yin Yang had visited before were either where they had fallen or where they had been "lured into a trap," leaving behind some of their residual divinity.
And because of his special Sequence and his possession of the divine kingdom, they were naturally drawn to him.
The reason he could hear their whispers was that these gods were calling out to him. He was already close to them, and they were eager for him to come over.
But what was the deal with this new black shadow?
And this black dragon!
Why had the entire divine kingdom expanded so much since the two of them arrived?
No, no, no.
That wasn't right.
There were also mountains and rivers on the mural!
Could the divine kingdom have expanded because it absorbed those mountains and rivers?
Yin Yang shook his head; there was no point in guessing.
He flew down to the square and stood in front of the black shadow.
With Yin Yang's 【Audacious Scoundrel】 providing encouragement, the surrounding heroic spirits finally dared to draw slightly closer.
“Are you the Shang King?”
Yin Yang activated his Communion technique on it, but the figure remained like a pool of stagnant water, showing absolutely no response, just like when he had examined the mural earlier.
Seeing this, Yin Yang looked up at the black dragon in the sky.
“Is he the Shang King?”
Still, there was no reaction. The black dragon simply flew about on its own, offering no feedback whatsoever.
In fact, if he couldn't physically "see" them, Yin Yang would have doubted whether the two of them even existed.
But as everyone knew, Yin Yang was a frugal man. Even if these two black shadows were useless for the time being, he couldn't bear to throw them away.
At the very least, they had expanded his divine kingdom by a significant margin.
With that in mind, Yin Yang exited the divine kingdom and went to sleep.
Early the next morning, a piece of news took Central City by storm.
#The Shadow Lotus Church, Driven to the Wall, Attempted a Terrorist Attack in Central City!#
#Security Bureau Intervenes, Slaying Four Demigods!#
This news instantly ignited the public's fury, and the internet was flooded with condemnation.
【Damn, no wonder Wannian Platform said they were targeting you. You completely deserved it!】
【In such a critical time of war, we absolutely cannot tolerate any destabilizing factors. I propose we completely wipe out the Shadow Lotus Church!】
【Yes, wipe them out completely!】
On one hand, this incident made the public detest the Shadow Lotus Church even more; on the other hand, it deepened their trust in the Security Bureau.
After all, being able to uncover the enemy's plans in advance and slay four Demigods was a highly impressive achievement.
Yin Yang sipped his coffee while browsing the news.
Mr. Ma arrived uninvited once again. Seeing Yin Yang drinking coffee, he said:
“Drink less of that. You'll get addicted if you drink too much.”
“Who said that? I drink it every day and I'm not addicted.”
“...Well, you have to actually stop to give the addiction a chance to kick in, don't you?”
By now, the two of them had grown quite familiar with each other, and their conversation flowed much more naturally.
Yin Yang asked the barista to make a cup of coffee for Mr. Ma as well, then said:
“So, how is it?”
“How is what?”
“The investigation into Wannian Platform.”
“That's business for the higher-ups. How would I know? I'm here today to deliver some materials to you.”
As he spoke, he opened his briefcase, pulled out an album, and said:
“Here, this is it.”
Yin Yang eagerly opened it, finding photographs of murals, bamboo slips, wooden tablets, and rubbings of stone inscriptions inside.
At this moment, Yin Yang realized he was starting to like the True Knowledge Society!
It felt absolutely wonderful to have knowledgeable people answer his questions and to be able to find the exact materials he wanted!
An evil cult?
Slander!
Yin Yang eagerly began reading. Seeing his expression, Mr. Ma felt highly satisfied.
Members of their True Knowledge Society needed to possess this exact kind of thirst for knowledge.
As for why Yin Yang loved studying the history of the Shang and Zhou eras, Mr. Ma didn't care at all. After all, what kind of oddballs didn't they have in the True Knowledge Society?
Yin Yang became completely absorbed in his reading.
The wooden tablets and bamboo slips recorded the story of a vassal king's clan.
Back then, his ancestor had been enfeoffed by the Son of Heaven of Zhou and sent to his fiefdom.
However, he discovered that the land was plagued by natural disasters, making it impossible for the common people to lead normal lives.
To make matters worse, aside from the natural disasters, there was also a flesh-and-blood evil spirit and numerous transcendent creatures.
Having sacrificed a vast number of soldiers, they ultimately had no choice but to appeal to the Son of Heaven of Zhou for aid.
The Son of Heaven of Zhou at the time dispatched several deities to help them reclaim their fiefdom. These deities banished the natural disasters and annihilated the evil spirits, leaving only the transcendent creatures for the clan to handle themselves.
To express their gratitude to the Son of Heaven of Zhou, they tamed the transcendent creatures and regularly offered their offspring as tribute.
As for the murals, they sang praises of this vassal king's achievements.
For instance, they depicted him leading troops to aid the Son of Heaven of Zhou.
He had also personally commanded his army to defeat the flesh-and-blood evil spirits, among other feats.
These flesh-and-blood evil spirits appeared in both the murals and the written records, but unfortunately, the descriptions were rather vague.
Judging solely by their appearance, they resembled monsters influenced by a flesh-and-blood evil god.
Perhaps it was merely a difference in eras and terminology.
After all, even in the current Great Wei, the South and the North called the exact same thing by different names, let alone during the ancient Zhou Era.
After finishing the entire read, Yin Yang exhaled a long breath. He turned around and looked at Mr. Ma in surprise, saying:
“You're still here?”
“...”
...
Outside Wannian Platform.
Mr. Gong squinted slightly and said:
“Looking only at the external incantations, it is merely a seal and conversion. To determine whether this Wannian Platform is alive, we must examine the internal incantations as well.”
“Interesting, very interesting.”
The elderly man beside him frowned upon hearing this.
“Going inside is too dangerous. Neither Huang Quan nor Wan Tianqing are to be trifled with.”
Mr. Gong laughed and said:
“Who says it's dangerous? Doesn't Wannian Platform allow scheduled visits? Can't I just go in and take a look?”
His companion stared at Mr. Gong in horror, his expression practically screaming: Are you tired of living?
“Where do you two want to visit?”
A woman's voice rang out from behind them. His companion whipped his head around, only to find an elderly man standing behind them at some unknown point. The woman's voice had indeed come from him.
Mr. Gong also turned around with a chuckle and said:
“Huang Quan, long time no see.”
Huang Quan let out a couple of dry chuckles, his voice shifting from that of a woman to that of a young boy.
“Gong Bei, it has indeed been a long time.”
“Have you finally seen the light and come to Central City to let me kill you?”
Hearing this, Mr. Gong waved his hands repeatedly.
“Look at you, why must you be so violent?”
“I'm just here in Central City for sightseeing, and I wanted to visit Wannian Platform along the way.”
Upon hearing this, the divinity on Huang Quan's body gradually surged, and the clouds in the sky began to churn.
“Where did you say you wanted to vi-sit?”
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