Chapter 274.2: The Temple of Flesh and Blood Remakes Shanan Prefecture! The Jing Dynasty Is Shaken as a Demon King of the Demon God Ministry Arrives! (II)

At present, he could make Second Growth blood descendants easily, but Third Growth was another matter. Since he himself only stood at Fourth Growth, making a Third Growth blood descendant would cost him too much, and the profit he stood to gain from doing that was not worth it at all.

I need to achieve Fifth Growth as soon as I can. Making Third Growth Divine Guards in batches shouldn't be a problem after that... He went back into quiet cultivation. His own strength was the thing that mattered, and he knew that clearly.

Taking Shanan Prefecture was not going to be a simple business either. Some large move from the Jing Dynasty was very likely coming, and he wanted to be prepared for it.

***

At the grand court assembly of the Jing Dynasty, three different groups held a power balance between them. The emperor of the Jing Dynasty was an eight-year-old boy at present, and a child ruler needed ministers to assist him, so there were two regent ministers.

The Empress Dowager, who governed from behind the screen, was also a power in her own right. The power balance was merely a thing on the surface, and a fragile one. One careless move from any party and it would break.

A memorial was being presented. "Reporting to His Majesty and to the Empress Dowager! Sorcerers have risen in Shanan Prefecture. They have founded a Temple of Flesh and Blood and raised an army of rebellion, and that army has now taken over Shanan Prefecture.

“Treason of this order must be punished severely. Let the court send an army and put the rebels down."

The ministers started whispering amongst themselves. The two regents made no move at all, sitting there with the perfect composure of men who had known about it for some time. That was because they plainly had.

Shanan Prefecture was no small place. A whole prefecture taken over by rebels was a very large matter. However much the Jing Dynasty looked like it was going to crumble, it had not collapsed yet and a dynasty that large still carried a certain authority. Killing officials and rising in open rebellion had to be punished.

However, the two regents knew perfectly well that it was not so simple. The Temple of Flesh and Blood in Shanan had beaten eighteen greater demons, and eight hundred of its men had broken an army of tens of thousands. How large a force would it take to put down something like that? Fifty thousand? A hundred thousand? Two hundred thousand? Not to mention, they needed elite troops and nothing less.

With the Jing Dynasty's strength as it stood, sending two hundred thousand men on campaign would throw the realm into chaos overnight. The regents themselves did not move, but they had long since instructed the ministers under them to speak against it.

As a result, the whole assembly fell apart with everyone arguing furiously and cries of the word "traitor" never quite dying away.

"Silence!" A eunuch's voice went up shrill over the rest, and the hall went quiet at once.

From behind the screen, the Empress Dowager slowly said, "My two regent ministers, what do you think should be done? The rebel occupation of Shanan Prefecture has a pernicious impact. ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

“If left unchecked, the surrounding nations would follow their lead. Then, what authority would our Great Jing be left with? Yet sending an army against them drags in a great many people, and money and grain would also be a problem."

"They say there is a true demon at work behind these Temple of Flesh and Blood sorcerers. If a true demon is involved, it is better to send an expert of the Demon God Ministry to Shanan and cut the temple's head off.

“Killing the leadership will make the rebels lose their spine and collapse. The danger in Shanan will resolve itself then. What do my two regent ministers think of it?"

The two regents exchanged a glance and nodded their agreement. "An excellent policy."

However, the Demon God Ministry was a very particular sort of office. Even regents could not give it orders. The ministry had always been held in the hands of the imperial family, and at present it was held specifically by the Empress Dowager.

Since the ministry belonged to the imperial family, the imperial family could still stand against the regents even after losing its grip on the army and the government, which was what had been keeping all three of them upright against each other in the same way that three legs held a cauldron.

"Very well, I shall give the order. The Demon God Ministry is to dispatch a demon god to Shanan Prefecture and put down this rebellion!"

The order went out at once, and it reached the Demon God Ministry.

The ministry took its name from the title "demon god,” and a demon god was the strongest thing it had. A demon god was, in fact, an ancient demon. Above them stood the Demon Progenitors, the progenitors of the ancient demons themselves, dreadful beings enthroned high even in the demon nation, and they seldom showed themselves in the world.

The Jing Dynasty had no Demon Progenitor, and neither did most human realms. The strongest thing any of them had was an ancient demon. As for why the Demon Progenitors of the demon nation had never simply reached out and wiped the human realms away, that was a mystery. Very few people knew the reason behind it.

What let the human realms stand against the demon nation was the existence of those ancient demons, also known as demon gods. In the Demon God Ministry of the Jing Dynasty, the Empress Dowager's order came into a demon god's hands.

He read it and let out a long sigh. "Destroying eighteen greater demons... Haaah. This Temple of Flesh and Blood is no simple thing. Rapid conversion into blood descendants as well, and their flesh appears to counter true demons and leave our immortality useless.

“They call themselves blood descendants... If these blood descendants genuinely are not demons, then this is a frightening thing indeed. It would mean a new race of living things standing alongside the human race and the demon race..."

The ministry held a great deal of material on the Temple of Flesh and Blood, far more detailed than anything that had reached the court. The demon god had been sharp enough to see that the temple was no ordinary matter.

"The situation is pressing as it is. Ancient demons from the demon nation have already slipped into the Jing Dynasty, and the ministry has to guarantee the capital's safety.

“There aren't many hands to spare. Hmm, Gu Luo has only just come out of seclusion, and his human nature has more or less contained his demon nature. He could make the trip to Shanan.”

The half-demon he had in mind was named Gu Luo, and he was far from ordinary. There was a thread of ancient demon bloodline in him, which meant that in theory, he had a chance of becoming an ancient demon himself and standing level with a demon god.

In practice, that was very hard. A great many demons carried a thread of that bloodline, but those who became ancient demons could be counted on one hand.

Regardless, that thread of bloodline had carried Gu Luo's strength to the peak of the demon king tier. Send Gu Luo to Shanan Prefecture, and he could very well destroy the Temple of Flesh and Blood.

So the demon god gave the order, and the half-demon Gu Luo left the ministry without a sound and set off for Shanan.

Three months slipped by in the blink of an eye. In a sealed chamber in the rear courtyard of the prefectural yamen in Shanan, Lu Changsheng's eyes opened sharply, and a Status Panel surfaced in front of him.

[Status Panel]

Host: Lu Changsheng

Title: Flesh and Blood Progenitor

Flesh and Blood Martial Dao: Fourth Growth (45%)

The progress on his Flesh and Blood Martial Dao pleased him. Three months to reach forty-five percent was around fifteen percent a month. If he trained using the ordinary route, he could not have sustained even ten percent a month, never mind fifteen. He was at Fourth Growth now, after all.

Truthfully, a whole prefecture came with real surprises in it. The Shanan prefecture was wide with a great deal of treasures, and Chen Ping's scouring of the place had turned up a few precious demon plants. With those in hand, Lu Changsheng had been training without restraint, swallowing them as he went. As a result, his Flesh and Blood Martial Dao had advanced in leaps and bounds.

However, three months of training had used up the demon plants almost entirely, and his pace would slow badly. The thought of that couldn't help but stir a sense of temptation in Lu Changsheng. Should he keep expanding? With two prefectures, three prefectures, or even a whole province, how many demon plants would that put in his hands? It was surely enough to carry him to Fifth Growth.

He sent for Chen Ping. "Chen Ping, is there any movement from the Jing Dynasty?"

"Progenitor, our informants say the court is unwilling to send an army against us and has handed the matter to the Demon God Ministry instead. There's every chance the ministry sends a powerful half-demon to Shanan, so I've put every gate of the city under strict control and guarded day and night. No half-demon of theirs is slipping into Shanan."