Chapter 274.1: The Temple of Flesh and Blood Remakes Shanan Prefecture! The Jing Dynasty Is Shaken as a Demon King of the Demon God Ministry Arrives! (I)

The fate of Shanan City lay in the temple's hands, so Lu Changsheng went to the prefectural yamen. There was a group of men inside shaking with faces white as paper. They belonged to the families and factions that had not gotten away in time, and the most conspicuous of them was the prefecture lord of Shanan.

"You... rebels! You've broken into Shanan City. What you're doing is killing officials and rising against the throne! The court will send an army and blow the lot of you to ash... Release me now, and there's still room to turn this around..." The prefecture lord had one last struggle left in him. He wanted to live. Given the choice, who wanted to die? Even though he had already been brought down this low, he still preferred to live.

Lu Changsheng looked down at him and let out a long sigh. "The world is a sea of bitterness and all beings suffer in it. Every man in that sea could have become a brother of the Temple of Flesh and Blood. It's a pity you took up the butcher's knife and slaughtered our brothers and sisters. How can you go on living after that?"

He shook his head and flicked a finger.

Bam!

A shudder went through the prefecture lord as his heart was wrung to pieces. Instantly, he fell down on the floor with no breath left in him. The Prefecture Lord of Shanan was dead on the floor of his own yamen.

The officials left in the room went as silent as cicadas in the cold, terror running through them all.

"Mercy, progenitor, have mercy."

"We were deceived by the prefecture lord. We had no idea he meant to slaughter the Temple of Flesh and Blood. All of it was his doing!"

"We're willing to take refuge in the temple. We're willing to become blood descendants. Take pity, progenitor..."

With the prefecture lord dead, the first thing they did was push every bit of the blame onto him. Dead men said nothing to defend themselves. They were truly frightened and wanted nothing but to live.

"Every one of you has the blood of my blood descendants on his hands. You are to be put to death."

There was no pity in him at all. He did want as many people converted as could be managed, but men who had raised the butcher's knife against the temple could not be pardoned for it.

Besides, there were a great many people in Shanan Prefecture. What did a few matter?

"Chen Ping, the usual arrangement. Convert the people of Shanan Prefecture into blood descendants. Heaven loves people, so help them leave the sea of bitterness behind," Lu Changsheng whispered.

"You are truly merciful, Progenitor. Your subordinate will see to it at once." Chen Ping said and withdrew respectfully.

Back in the rear courtyard, Lu Changsheng turned the battle outside the walls over in his mind. Every one of those eighteen greater demons had been a terrifying thing. He had brought only eight blood descendant Divine Guards, who were Third Growth blood descendants on a level with a greater demon. They were far fewer in number than the enemy, yet the eighteen greater demons were the ones who died in a single exchange.

Numbers! The number of blood descendants counted for a great deal. Eight hundred temple guards formed into an army that could kill eighteen greater demons in a heartbeat. What about eight thousand? Could a demon king even stand against them? How about eighty thousand? Would that sweep an ancient demon away? Or even eight hundred thousand? Could that go against the Demon Progenitor?

The Demon Progenitor was a different story, and he knew that perfectly well. The Demon Progenitor stood at the level of the Nascent Soul, or of a Martial Saint, and once someone became a Martial Saint, the rules changed entirely. Below a Martial Saint, all were considered ants. Numbers probably posed no threat to the Demon Progenitor whatsoever.

However, that didn't matter. When the time came, Lu Changsheng could handle the Demon Progenitor himself. Everything below it, his temple guard forces could stand against, given enough of them.

"This world is enormous, and it has none of the previous world's means of sending word across the lands. Doing it the way I did in the previous world would never spread my Martial Dao across the whole world in the time I have here.

“Without spreading it across the whole world, condensing a Martial Dao out of the will of the multitude is simply impossible. The blood descendants have to spread faster than this..." he murmured under his breath.

He wanted the blood descendants to spread faster. The world, after all, belonged to demons. There were a great number of humans inside the demon nation as well, and those humans were kept by the demons as feed, which made their lot a wretched one.

Put a means of fighting true demons into their hands, and it would be a spark in dry grass. The resulting fire would surely consume the whole plain.

Once a man became a blood descendant, the greatest threat a true demon carried, their immortality, would become very nearly useless. A blood descendant's flesh could kill a true demon, which left even an ordinary blood descendant able to deal with one.

On top of that, the Flesh and Blood Martial Dao could be trained, and a blood descendant could raise their strength through it to Second Growth, Third Growth, even Fourth Growth.

The question was how to spread them. Thinking it through, he decided to take the initiative. Taking one place at a time was far too slow. A prefecture today, a province tomorrow. That was usually how a man conquered a realm, but it moved at a pace Lu Changsheng could not use. He only had ten years!

The main force of the Temple of Flesh and Blood must methodically conquer the surrounding regions, and perhaps even occupy the Jing Dynasty, to generate sufficient influence to impact countless ordinary humans across the entire world.

It can't rest on that alone, though. The Flesh and Blood Martial Dao has to spread on its own. Either that or the blood descendants have to reach every corner of the world.

Having thought it through, he summoned the blood descendant Divine Guards.

They stood at Third Growth, across the line into transcendence, and there were not many of them. There were a few dozen in all. Those few dozen were the seeds he needed. A single blood descendant Divine Guard was formidable and hard to kill. If they worked quietly, they could spread across the whole world without question.

"We greet the progenitor!"

The few dozen of them were respectful, and there was something fervent in their eyes. Every one of them worshipped the progenitor standing in front of him.

Lu Changsheng spoke slowly, emphasizing each word. "The world is a sea of bitterness and all beings suffer in it. Across this world, there are countless ordinary people still struggling in that sea, and every hour, some of them die helplessly.

“Above all, in the demon nation, the human race has been reduced to feed for demons, and their conditions are wretched beyond describing. Every one of you was human before you were converted, and every one of you has left that sea behind. Are you willing to help the humans of the demon nation leave it as well?"

The answer came back with hardly a moment's hesitation, and every voice echoed together. "Progenitor, we are willing to help all beings leave the sea of bitterness behind!"

"Good! The lot of you are to scatter into the demon nation, grow the blood descendants in secret, and deliver the human race. Remember, quiet growth is all I want. Avoid open conflict with the demons wherever you can.

“Convert ten thousand, a hundred thousand, a million, a hundred million, make every one of them a blood descendant, and the demon nation is ours to conquer! What would keep the humans of the demon nation from leaving that sea behind?"

It set the blood surging in every one of the Divine Guards. They understood that the task ahead of them was a very great one, and the weight of it settled in their chests. Delivering the human race of the demon nation... What a noble thing that was! What compassion it took!

"Infinitely merciful and compassionate Flesh and Blood Progenitor, we will discharge the trust you place in us and deliver the wretched humans of the demon nation!" They raised their voices in unison, then left without wavering. Each one took his own route bound for the demon nation.

Lu Changsheng watched their backs recede and couldn't help but wonder. Each of them was like a seed. In a few years, would those seeds put down roots and grow into trees tall enough to touch the sky? It didn't matter. The seeds were already planted in the ground. All that remained was to wait quietly.

"Taking over the Jing Dynasty would take a while since it needs to be carefully executed one step at a time. With the Shanan Prefecture in hand, there'll be no rash moves for a while. I need to digest the results of the battle first. Losing that many guards at once has cost the temple a great deal of strength, and that needs to be made up before anything else."

Ahead of him lay more hard work, as he needed to convert a lot more blood descendants.