Chapter 379 - 373: Hanging All Beings

Chapter 379: Chapter 373: Hanging All Beings

In an ancient town in the state of Great Chu, the war had taken its toll on the populace.

The once-bustling marketplace was now deserted. Everyone was huddled in their homes, awaiting the outcome of the war.

In an alley on a street corner, a man in tattered clothes cowered wretchedly. He was dragging himself forward, crawling on his arms.

The man was covered in wounds, and his legs had been deliberately twisted into a grotesque, pretzel-like shape.

With every foot he crawled, the scraping against the ground sent waves of excruciating pain shooting up from his legs.

But the man’s gaze did not waver in the slightest.

Aside from the occasional furrowing of his brow from a jolt of pain, his eyes were filled with nothing but devotion.

With each stretch he covered, he muttered something under his breath. One would have to lean in close to faintly hear the fragmented words:

"In the beginning, before the chaos, when heaven and earth were not yet separate and yin and yang were not yet judged, there was but one god. His spirit, ever-luminous, was called Fang Can..."

His name was Tao Xuan, a peripheral member of the Heavenly Cult. The god he worshipped was named Fang Can.

He was only a peripheral member because the core members of the Heavenly Cult had vanished without a trace several months prior, leaving him with no opportunity to officially join.

Drawn by its reputation, he had proclaimed himself a follower of Fang Can, waiting only for the day the order re-established itself so he could formally join.

Until then, he planned to preach, to spread Fang Can’s name across the land and allow more followers to be called by their god.

Unfortunately, this was a time of war—a war between his god and the various nations of the world.

As a follower of Fang Can, he was, as a matter of course, ostracized by the town.

With no regard for law or morality, a mob had beaten him into his current state and seized all his property within a mere three days. Now, he was worse off than the beggars on the street.

It wasn’t just him. Throughout the nations of the martial world, all of Fang Can’s followers were targeted in spontaneous witch hunts organized by the masses. The death and injury toll after just a few days was staggering.

And so, Tao Xuan crawled across the ground, chanting the *Sutra of the Supreme, Most Honored, Glorious, and Resplendent Divine Emperor*, his eyes filled with defiance against his fate.

’My god will surely protect me!’ Tao Xuan believed this with all his heart.

As if in answer to his prayers, the entire world seemed to respond. In an instant, the sky grew dim.

At the same time, a colossal figure appeared, reflected in his retinas. Its face was identical to the one seen during Baixiaosheng’s previous broadcast.

"A god... a miracle!" Tao Xuan cried out with what little voice he had left.

At the same time, the panicked cries of the townspeople rose and fell all around him. This filled his heart with immense satisfaction. ’My devotion was not in vain!’

Meanwhile, elsewhere, a convoy of carriages made its way through the wilderness.

A man in a black robe spread his hands and declared loudly:

"Brothers and sisters, the miracle has manifested! We no longer need to hide. Let us follow our god’s will and spread His faith throughout the world!"

"Praise be to our god!" the followers chanted, piously making the corresponding gestures.

These followers were different from Tao Xuan.

Days earlier, upon hearing the news that Fang Can had declared war, these followers had sensed trouble. Some went into hiding, while others proactively moved to remote areas, far from the conflict.

Because they were not as high-profile as Tao Xuan, they had managed to travel without being attacked by any large beasts, despite being completely defenseless. It was as if heaven itself were protecting them.

...

Fang Can saw all these scenes unfolding across the nations, and he sighed at the differences between people.

His own miraculous reversal of fortune didn’t just protect him; his believers naturally received a share of that good luck as well.

But this shared fortune wasn’t enough to grant everyone the same kind of plot armor that Fang Can himself possessed.

For these distant followers, this luck manifested, at most, as a sudden premonition of danger, allowing them to avoid it just in time.

In normal times, this luck was more than enough for them to live peaceful, moderately prosperous lives.

Days ago, some believers who saw which way the wind was blowing had suggested to Tao Xuan that he should leave, preserve his strength, and find a better way to serve his god later.

But Tao Xuan had dismissed their words as impious. He’d stubbornly remained in town, declaring that true faith had no fear of blades or spears.

And so he got what he asked for, treated like one of the Jews and beaten into his current state.

If not for the protection of his luck, which led him to stumble upon discarded fruit or leftover food from time to time, he would have died long before the eve of this miracle.

In fact, the very ability to be so headstrong and not get killed was proof of his devout faith; the protection he received from his luck was greater than that of an ordinary believer.

It was like a Jew surviving a concentration camp—you had to have at least a little divine protection on your side.

...

Standing high in the sky, gazing down at the map of the nations below, Fang Can’s breath boomed like thunder as he spoke:

"From this day forward, there shall be but one sun in the hearts of all living beings: Me!"

As he spoke, Fang Can’s colossal body, empowered by a law of proliferation, shattered the limits of physics.

Billions of fleshy fibers grew wildly toward the heavens like a living planetary ring. In the vacuum of space, each sinew twisted and coiled, forming a biological membrane that covered the celestial orbits.

The people of the nations had only to open their eyes to see Fang Can’s flesh transforming into a boundless canopy, as thin as a cicada’s wing, that shrouded the entire world.

From this day forward, Fang Can used his own body to form a fantasy version of a Dyson sphere, enclosing all the nations within.

All sunlight descending from the heavens would be absorbed and stored by Fang Can’s Great Sun Undying Demon Body, then steadily channeled to the world below.

As the sky’s light was obstructed, all illumination was absorbed by Fang Can’s body. The entire world was instantly plunged into pitch-black darkness.

But Tao Xuan felt no fear, for everything happening before him matched the scripture of the *Sutra of the Supreme, Most Honored, Glorious, and Resplendent Divine Emperor* perfectly.

"God said, ’Let there be light’!" Tao Xuan’s body trembled with excitement as he muttered to himself, feeling that everything unfolding before him was exactly as described in the holy scripture.

The next moment, the Dyson sphere formed from Fang Can’s living flesh, having absorbed the sun’s rays, began to channel a steady stream of light downward.

In an instant, the world that had been plunged into darkness was bright once more.

But when the people looked up, they could not find the sun. They could only see an azure sky simulated by Fang Can’s living flesh, and projected upon it, the face of Fang Can himself, surveying all of creation.

This miracle-like scene shattered the psychological defenses of most of the populace.

Now that He had shown them a miracle, it was time to make the entire world feel His divine might.

The next moment, a magnificent voice echoed across heaven and earth: "Those who offend my divine might... shall perish!"

Immediately after, the people saw countless ropes descending from the firmament, reaching for the earth below.

These were ropes of blood, formed from the capillaries of Fang Can’s own flesh.

Amid the panicked screams of the people, the blood ropes snaked toward the necks of every single person in all the nations.

Yes. Every single one.

Before Tao Xuan could even react, a blood rope cinched tight around his neck and began hoisting him toward the sky.