Chapter 216

Dongfang Qi pondered and said: "Guifang Kingdom was only a small country before, and it only had its current scale after successively annexing eight small countries. I think it must have used some extraordinary means. For example—evil arts!"

He looked up and asked Lin Qingyue: "As far as you know, is there any technique that can win every battle?"

"Naturally there is... Lin Qingyue's heart moved, and she said, "Could it be... a puppet? The poison of the Flying Corpse Silkworm can make people become puppets, having no pain during battle, only killing blindly. But this requires a large amount of feeding. And the feeding conditions for the Flying Corpse Silkworm are harsh, and it is difficult to accumulate a large amount of poison."

"At the beginning, Princess Ling Xue only had a small bottle of poison in her hand, so it can be inferred that the poison they possess should not be particularly large. At least not enough to cover the war."

Dongfang Qi sighed: "It is a pity that we didn't find an opportunity to enter the depths of the Shendian to explore tonight."

Just now, after Lao Gui pretended to be Li Wei to meet the Archbishop, Dongfang Qi and Lin Qingyue wanted to take the opportunity to sneak into the hinterland.

But the guards on the first floor were strict. And the guards of the Shendian all had some special abilities. Around the Shendian, there were various arrays. Once they took action, the array would be triggered, and it would inevitably alert the enemy.

For the sake of safety, Dongfang Qi persuaded Lin Qingyue: "The situation is unclear, it is better to remain still for now. Once the enemy is alerted, I am afraid we will be passive next."

Lin Qingyue did not take action because of this.

Lao Gui said: "You were right not to take action rashly. If the Archbishop is not an accident, he is at least a demon with a thousand years of cultivation!"

Dongfang Qi asked: "How did you see it?"

Lao Gui said: "He hid very well, and there was not even an evil aura on him. However, I found that the maids beside him were listless and had dull eyes. If I am not wrong, they should have been harvested for Yin to nourish Yang. This kind of technique is usually used by demons. People who are harvested will lose their vitality slowly in one or two days, or two or three months."

"Sigh..." Lao Gui sighed, "It is also because of this that I didn't dare to act rashly."

Lin Qingyue said: "This is not surprising. After all, being able to climb to the position of Archbishop, he must have some skills. Did you see that Archbishop, is his appearance consistent with the god statue worshipped in the hall?"

Lao Gui shook his head: "Different. The Archbishop is about forty or fifty years old, but for people who practice evil arts, you can't tell his real age from his appearance. And the god statue, this is a twenty-year-old young man. The facial features are also completely different."

Lin Qingyue said: "So, there should be someone else behind the Archbishop who is stealing the people's faith and crowning himself as a god!"

Dongfang Qi said: "We have made a preliminary exploration tonight; tomorrow we will find a way to see if there is any reason to go deep into the Shendian."

In a blink of an eye, it was the next day.

Lao Gui wore the official robe of the Xuanjiao Ambassador, sitting on the high platform, supervising the worship and offerings of the people below.

And Lin Qingyue and Dongfang Qi watched for a while and were about to leave.

Suddenly, a commotion came from the crowd:

"Look, that is the person who betrayed the god! Adulterous couple, cohabiting without a matchmaker!"

"The god is merciful, please bestow punishment on the traitors!"

Lin Qingyue followed the sound and saw a pair of officials escorting two prisoner carts on the main street outside the Shendian square.

A man and a woman were locked in the prisoner carts, their clothes stripped open, paraded through the streets.

"What big crime did those two commit to suffer such humiliation?" Lin Qingyue was wearing civilian clothes and a veil at this moment, asking the person beside her.

That person said: "Don't you know yet? A few days ago, this adulterous couple actually got married secretly! This naturally couldn't be hidden from the all-knowing Heavenly God, so the Heavenly God sent down punishment, stripped their clothes, and paraded them through the streets."

Dongfang Qi asked strangely: "Why is getting married secretly considered betraying the god?"

That person glanced at Dongfang Qi and Lin Qingyue, and said: "If you ask this, you must be from out of town. In our Luo Cheng, the wedding date can only be chosen on the first and fifteenth of each month. And on the wedding night, the bride must be sent to the Shendian for one night to receive the god's blessing. Only then can the couple be harmonious and grow old together."

"Only after receiving the god's blessing is the marriage recognized. Otherwise, it is cohabiting without a matchmaker, and they will be stripped of their clothes and paraded through the streets as a warning to others."

This remark once again overturned Dongfang Qi's cognition, and he was about to speak, but was secretly pulled by Lin Qingyue.

Lin Qingyue lowered her voice and warned him: "Stay calm, don't show your emotions, so as not to attract attention."

After warning him, she turned back to that person and said: "This rule is very good. Three days later, it will be the fifteenth of this month. Then we should have the eye-opener to see a unique wedding."

That person proudly straightened his head: "Newcomers who can receive the god's blessing are naturally very good. Those two idiots actually dared to violate the rules set by the god, and they will definitely be severely punished. I heard that after the parade, the woman will be sent to the military camp to be a prostitute. The man will be drowned in the pond! Let me tell you—hey, where are the people?"

An hour later, by the river outside Luo Cheng.

"Splash!" The sack containing people was thrown into the pond, splashing a huge water flower.

Two soldiers stood by, watching the sack sink completely before turning and leaving.

Almost at the moment they left, the sack suddenly floated out of the water and flew into the bushes beside it.

"Cough cough cough!" After a violent cough, the man finally recovered.

He wiped the water off his face and looked up at the man and woman wearing veils in front of him.

"Thank you for saving me." He was thanking them, but the man's face didn't have much joy of surviving a disaster, but instead cried out.

He cried while saying: "My wife, my wife... wuu wuu, I am sorry to her."

Lin Qingyue said: "Your wife has been sent to the border military camp, but if you ride quickly, you should be able to catch up and save her. Do you want to save her?"

The man nodded repeatedly: "Save, of course I want to save her!"

Dongfang Qi threw a bag of money over: "This bag of money is for you to buy horses. Before that, can you tell us why you didn't follow the rules when you got married? Do you know something?"

Mentioning this, the man was extremely angry: "That Guiyuan Sect is a demonic cult! Originally, our whole family were loyal believers of the Guiyuan Sect. In order to express our loyalty to the god, half of the money my father earned every month had to be offered to the Shendian. But later..."

The man was named Ke An, and he had an older sister at home.

A year ago, Ke An's sister got married, marrying a rich merchant in the city, which was originally a match made in heaven.

And the groom's family also followed the rules and set the wedding date on the first day of the month.

That night, after the wedding ceremony, the groom's family sent the bride to the Shendian.