Chapter 254: Divine Intervention

Present Day.

Roy stood at the precipice of a jagged, barren cliff along the southern ridge of the Northern Hashian Mountains.

The high-altitude gales whipped violently across the peak, causing the long, sleek strands of his golden hair to flutter wildly against the backdrop of the grey horizon.

He had long discarded his disguise as the aged Peerless Supreme Elder of the Glorious Mythical Sect.

Stored safely inside his dimensional space was the old man’s outer facade, replaced now by his original human form.

A beautiful, perfectly sculpted figure radiating an suppressed, primordial divinity that caused the air within ten meters of him to warp and hum with quiet force.

As Roy stood overlooking the sweeping valleys below, a tiny emerald-scaled lizard scrambled up the jagged rock face, its claws making faint scratching sounds against the granite.

Without looking down, Roy gently bent over and extended his hand.

The small reptile crawled smoothly onto his open palm, coiling around his fingers with absolute, unquestioning submission.

Roy brought the lizard closer to his face, gently caressing its scaled head with the tip of his thumb.

His lips curled into a faint, dark smile.

Through the sensory link shared with the creature, every word spoken inside the locked, array-shielded sanctuary of the Emerald Purity Sect echoed clearly in his mind.

He had heard the Sect Leader’s scheming, the Myriad Heaven Sect Envoy’s pragmatic anger, and their cynical plot to drop a bait, sacrifice their southern neighbors, and use the Holy Church as a broom to sweep away their rivals.

‘Sacrifice the South to save themselves… How predictable,’ Roy thought, his dark eyes glinting with amusement.

To be honest, ever since his brief, quiet conversation with Telvanus on the rooftops a few hours ago, Roy had completely made up his mind.

He was done treading lightly.

He was done treading around the political sensitivities of mortal cultivators and playing defensive mind games with overseas high priests.

He was going to unleash his true authority, and he was not going to hold back.

If he was to carve out a permanent, undisputed place for his church on this continent, he needed to leave a deep, terrifying, and long-lasting impression upon the minds of the human population.

He needed them to look at his divine domain not as a rogue cult, but as an absolute, undeniable reality.

Roy had already experimented with forced conversion in the past.

He had used his vast spiritual pressure and divine intent to crush the wills of mortal captives, forcing them onto their knees to recite his honorifics like hollow puppets.

Yet, the results had been entirely useless.

Those puppeted mortals, stripped of their free agency, possessed no true faith.

Their prayers were empty noise, devoid of genuine spiritual resonance.

From those broken husks, Roy had received absolute zero Faith Points.

The mechanics of divinity were unyielding: for a god to accumulate follower counts, expand his divine domain, and harvest the vast reservoirs of Faith Points required to elevate his godhood, the mortals had to believe.

They had to feel true awe, profound reverence, or overwhelming, terrifying devotion from the absolute depths of their souls.

And what better way to command the total, unyielding belief of an entire continent than by demonstrating the absolute, terrifying authority of the God of Beast and Men?

In preparation for this grand, continental curtain-raiser, Roy had systematically woven an invisible, inescapable net across the entirety of the four Hashian Mountain ranges.

Every single living organism belonging to the animal kingdom—mammals, reptiles, insects, and birds—had been brought under his direct, absolute command.

The tiny flies hovering in the dark corners of sect halls, the green lizards basking on mountain rocks, the subterranean snakes slithering beneath ancestral arrays, the silent sparrows perched on guard posts, and even the worker ants marching in the soil… none had escaped his divine reach.

They had become his infinite, omnipresent web of eyes and ears.

Not a single conspiracy, private whisper, or secret military deployment across all four mountain ranges could bypass his awareness.

It was how he had so easily eavesdropped on the Sect Leader’s hidden council without triggering a single high-tier defensive formation.

Roy slowly turned his gaze toward the south, his golden eyes piercing through the thick layer of clouds to lock onto the distant, jagged peaks of the Southern Hashian Mountains—the domain ruled by the powerful Crimson Key Sect.

“The Crimson Key Sect will be the Church of the God of the Sky’s very first target,” Roy spoke aloud, his deep voice carrying a low, resonant vibration that made the emerald lizard in his palm bow its head even lower.

His smile widened slightly, exposing sharp, white teeth. “For such a massive army of paladins, high priests, and a Cardinal to make an open, aggressive move into neutral territory, they need justification. They need a grand, righteous cause that excuses their bloodlust in the eyes of the public. And to get that justification, they must paint the Church of the God of Beast as the ultimate, unforgivable villains of the world.”

Roy let out a low, dark chuckle that echoed off the mountain walls.

“Targeting my church to justify a crusade… It is a classic strategy. But for me… it is absolute perfection.”

Roy stretched his right hand outward into the open air.

A sharp, piercing screech split the grey skies, and a magnificent peregrine falcon dove from the upper cloud layer, folding its powerful wings before pulling up seamlessly and landing gracefully upon Roy’s outstretched forefinger.

Its razor-sharp talons clamped firmly around his flesh, yet it did not draw a single drop of blood, trembling in quiet, ecstatic reverence before its creator.

Roy stroked the soft feathers of the falcon’s neck, his eyes fixed on the southern horizon.

“The Church of the God of the Sky will certainly get the justification they so desperately seek,” Roy whispered, his voice dripping with venomous, calculated irony.

“However… the moment they step foot into those mountains, their glorious, holy reputation will be utterly shattered beyond repair.”

His smile vanished, replaced by an expression of cold, terrifying detachment.

“Because I am going to orchestrate a horrifying, ungodly slaughter in the Southern Hashian Mountains,” Roy declared.

“And every single drop of blood spilled shall be pinned directly onto the golden banners of the Holy See.”

Roy’s eyes suddenly flared, shifting from their calm, golden hue into a blinding, radiant crimson-and-gold brilliance.

The air around the mountain peak violently ruptured, the sheer density of his divine presence blowing away the surrounding clouds in an expanding, supersonic shockwave.

Within the deep recesses of his divine soul core, Roy activated the core Innate Divine Authority of his domain:

Divine Domain: Ruler of Beasts

A massive, invisible wave of primordial, telepathic command erupted from Roy’s body like a cosmic beacon, sweeping across hundreds of kilometers in a fraction of a second.

It bypassed mortal senses, piercing straight into the primal instincts of every beast, monster, and mutated creature residing within the four Hashian Mountain ranges.

In particular, the command slammed directly into the minds of the countless F-class Abominations—vicious, mindless, bio-corrupted monsters spawned from corrupted ley lines, creatures that usually roamed the deep, uncharted ravines in chaotic, violent packs, devouring everything in their path.

Under normal circumstances, these abominations were uncontrollable, rabid beasts that knew only hunger and destruction.

Yet, under the absolute, divine command of the Ruler of Beasts, the wild, chaotic madness in their eyes was instantly snuffed out, replaced by a single, terrifying, absolute intent.

Across the Northern, Eastern, Western, and Southern Hashian ranges, the ground began to tremble.

Deep within dark caverns, ancient ravines, forgotten ruins, and dense, sunless forests, millions of glowing red eyes snapped open simultaneously.

Massive, mutated claws tore through the soil; heavy, armored hides scraped against cavern walls; and thousands of terrifying, guttural roars echoed up into the sky as one unified voice.

Hundreds of thousands of F-class abominations, alongside armies of wild, feral beasts, emerged from the shadows of the mountains.

They did not attack one another.

They did not pause to feed.

Forming a colossal, endless tide of black, crimson, and bone-white flesh, the monstrous host turned as a single entity, their stomping hooves and clawed feet shaking the very tectonic plates of the continent as they began their relentless, terrifying march toward a single destination:

The Southern Hashian Mountains.