Book 7, Chapter 96: Converting

Within Forge City.

The city was located right next to a volcano. As such, temperatures inside the city were high year-round, which was why it eventually became known as Forge City.

Today, however, a shocking scene was unfolding within the city.

Snow began to fall from the sky as a chilling wind descended upon the city. Suddenly, the city’s temperatures dropped significantly. The city’s inhabitants were extremely caught off-guard by the sudden cold snap.

But what was even harder to bear than the sudden chill was the appearance of many cultivators descending from the sky.

“One team to the east, two teams to the west. Destroy any churches that you run into. Purification Team, prepare to follow-up and sweep out any believers!” Ye Fenghan’s voice echoed through the sky. The snowflakes falling from the sky belonged to him.

“Damn, this guy is getting stronger by the day,” Chang He chattered.

Ye Fenghan had mastered the Frost Aspect first and the Seven Desolate Bloodline Microcosm after. Somehow, he had managed to merge the two Aspects into one, perhaps because of his innately chilly demeanor.

The Seven Desolate Bloodline Microcosm had turned into a frozen wasteland powerful enough to affect the entire city and turn a scorching hot day into the middle of winter.

The two groups of soldiers quickly began to carry out their mission.

Behind them came the weak but many Yang Opening Realm cultivators and below.

These cultivators were not all from the Boundless Sect. Some of them were recruited volunteers from the Origin Realm. They had chosen to join in for the sake of saving the Origin Realm. They were the ones responsible for purifying believers and stopping any repair efforts.

Su Chen didn’t want to be the person responsible for slaughtering every human on Kun’s territory, so he could only utilize his disciples to convert other believers.

The Boundless Sect’s higher-ups had argued about the specifics of execution quite a bit.

Eventually, Su Chen quashed the debate by saying, “We are humans. We should have some standards.”

The Purification Team, composed of these lower-tier cultivators, followed behind the main front lines and took over administrative duties. Their training was impressive, their execution was swift, and their behavior was lawful. They would gather together as a group, and then someone would be nominated to make a few declarations. First, they would announce that the city had been conquered and that it was now under the control of the Boundless Sect. Then, they would announce that all believers needed to renounce their beliefs or face extermination.

Renouncing one’s beliefs was incredibly difficult, and relying on force to do so would inevitably result in a backlash.

On this matter, however, the Boundless Sect refused to compromise or show mercy.

Any person who dared to make an issue of this rule would be killed without hesitation.

As such, this preliminary gathering was the most important thing to take place immediately after the bloody slaughter. They wanted to save as many lives as they could, but in a cruel twist of fate, they had no choice but to do so by unleashing a bloody slaughter.

Worst of all, it was still incredibly difficult to force the commoners to abandon their faith even with such a display of force.

Because they believed that, even in death, their souls would ascend to the divine lands.

The gods had their own kingdom, after all.

“The gods do have their own kingdom, but unfortunately…… it hit capacity a long time ago,” Ye Fenghan remarked disdainfully.

Even their kingdom had its boundaries.

It was impossible for twenty-three kingdoms to simultaneously exist on a piece of land as small as Kun’s territory. As such, the gods’ divine kingdom was pitifully small and could only contain a measly tens of thousands of individuals. How could that possibly be enough to support their living needs?

Countless worshippers had died from the beginning until now, but very few of them had managed to enter those divine lands.

Those whose souls dissipated would be gone forever. Even the gods wouldn’t be able to bring them back.

Unfortunately, no one believed in the truth. These believers all continued to steadfastly put their hope in glory after death.

Their lack of fear about dying and their solid faith posed a big headache.

“This is not as easy as I thought it was going to be,” Chang He said as he gazed at the waves of dying believers, rubbing his forehead in frustration.

Forge City was just the beginning. Getting stuck here so early on would bring trouble in the future.

“Not even one out of ten of them wants to renounce their faith. What should we do, sir?” some of the cultivators asked Ye Fenghan.

Ye Fenghan’s eyebrows were deeply furrowed in a thoughtful frown.

What should they do?

As long as these believers were still alive, they would continue praying and transmitting faith from the shadows. Killing them mercilessly, on the other hand, would be violating the principles they had established at the beginning.

“Destroying physical bodies is much harder than destroying faith,” Ye Fenghan muttered to himself.

“We don’t have much time to waste here. We need to come up with some kind of a solution,” Wang Xinchao urged.

Ye Fenghan, however, continued to hug his arms in deep thought.

“If you can’t come up with a solution, I have an idea. It might not be to your liking though,” Chang He suddenly said.

Ye Fenghan glanced at him coldly. “I already told you, we will not kill them all.”

“That’s not it. It’s this.” Chang He pulled out an item and handed it to Ye Fenghan.

The item was a small pink vial.

Ye Fenghan was taken aback when he saw this. “An aphrodisiac?”

This aphrodisiac was the one Su Chen had developed while studying Origin Substances. Eventually, that resulted in his fling with Zhu Xianyao.

Afterwards, Su Chen realized that it had very little practical value. However, its effects when used in the bedroom were still quite good. As such, Su Chen had kept the recipe around. Later, it had been leaked somehow, and it eventually became quite a popular pleasure-inducing drug.

The aphrodisiacs available for purchase on the markets were quite low-grade, however, and were only good for supplements. They would not cause a person to lose control of their lust.

The one Chang He held in his hand, however, was the original version. That version was capable of creating quite a bit of chaos.

Ye Fenghan didn’t understand why Chang He had pulled out that kind of an item.

“What are you thinking?” he asked.

Chang He sincerely replied, “We cannot get them to change their beliefs, but we can get them to sin. If too much sin accumulates, they will feel as if they have been abandoned by their deity. Most churches have a strict celibacy policy, with violators being labeled as heathens. Furthermore…… it will stir up quite a bit of chaos.”

Ye Fenghan was stunned when he heard this.

It had to be said, though, that Chang He’s proposal was actually quite reasonable.

They had gained quite a bit of practical experience in dealing with the underground worshippers in the Origin Realm, and had performed quite a few different experiments. One crucial factor driving faith was their reverence towards the deity. If a believer were to constantly violate their faith’s rules, however, the resulting emotional damage would warp their logic and decrease their piety as a result.

This could be accomplished by enticing believers with money, authority, status, prestige, or sexuality.

The cost of the former few was too high, but the latter was much simpler and easier to do.

But this would also cause lasciviousness to take over the city.

Heavens, Chang He, what are you thinking?

Ye Fenghan gazed at him, stunned.

Chang He replied straightforwardly, “If you want to create enough of a commotion, one vial is enough. Thankfully, the recipe is readily available, and we have many alchemists ready to go to work on command. Let them get to work.”

Ye Fenghan said, “We came here to take control of this world, not throw it into chaos and licentiousness.”

Chang He replied, “We came here to watch the fireworks.”

Amazingly, Chang He had managed to convince Ye Fenghan.

For once, Chang He was being serious, yet the method he had chosen was incredibly indecent.

Ye Fenghan did have to admit, however, that it would be incredibly effective.

As the wave of lust spread across the city, the faith being offered to the gods began to dry up.

The believers lost themselves in their carnal pleasures as their betrayal of their gods ate away at them. The sudden crisis significantly shook their faith.

Of course, a small proportion of those individuals managed to delude themselves into distancing themselves from their actions. This kind of self-deception allowed them to ignore their lack of self-control and actually resulted in their faith reaching a new level.

The Boundless Sect was more than happy to execute these “geniuses.”

Even Ye Fenghan and Chang He couldn’t have imagined that what they had done at Forge City would soon envelope the entire Kun’s territory.

There was nothing else that could be done. This system of faith had existed for far too long, meaning that many of them were willing to die for their beliefs.

The Boundless Sect, who wasn’t willing to slaughter the inhabitants of Kun’s territory, could only use this kind of method.

A tsunami of lust swept across Kun’s territory, stirring up large-scale chaos.

For this first step of the invasion, indecent scenes were unfolding all across the territory. As the believers’ humiliation and shame increased, the societal systems and ethical obligations they relied on were shattered. They became creatures of passion, often unable to control themselves from copulating in public. Even some of the Boundless Sect’s disciples, who were responsible for keeping a close eye on the situation, couldn’t stop themselves from getting a taste of it themselves…… some side effects were unavoidable, after all.

Chang He’s reputation skyrocketed to the point that he became known as the Lust Ancestor. Later, a statue was erected in his likeness, to which the commoners would worship for fertility.

Yes, the best way to deal with the gods was not to get their disciples to renounce their faith, but rather to convert them.

Inciting their disciples to indulge in the lusts of their flesh was not a lasting solution.

It could be used to weaken the stalwart faith that the believers had in their gods, but not to facilitate the Boundless Sect’s control over them.

As such, the Boundless Sect utilized this tactic to begin converting these believers to worship other gods.

These new gods did not actually exist. However, they nevertheless became idols of worship in the minds and hearts of the former believers.

Of course, at a certain point becoming an immortal would have certain requirements on supplication from the masses, but that was a matter for much later.

After destruction came rebuilding.

For the path of the immortal to rise, the path of the gods needed to die.

Now was the time for destruction.

As the Boundless Sect’s disciples were destroying this system of faith, the gods finally began their attacks on the fissure.

Thunder and lightning descended from the sky, filling the surroundings with an aura of death and destruction.

As lightning continued to flash, a door made out of fire and lightning began to appear.

The door slowly opened, revealing a glowing golden temple behind it.

The temple towered in the sky, seemingly appearing out of nowhere.

The temple was so massive that it appeared to be the size of a small country itself. Naturally, an extremely powerful aura emanated from it.

In comparison to this lofty kingdom, Sky City was like a small mosquito circling around an eagle.

The Temple of the Gods!