Chapter 163: Erin's Divine Kingdom

Tang Renquan's mysterious backlash state was suppressed, and the progress of the activation ritual sped up considerably.

With the help of two bishops of the Apocalypse, the core node of the Earthly Kingdom ritual on the ground was activated in less than ten minutes.

The thirteen nodes surrounding Wanghai City linked into one; thirteen small rituals combined into a massive ritual covering the entire city.

Looking down from above, one could see a mysterious barrier rising around Wanghai City, wrapped by the ritual.

Inside and outside the barrier, it was as if the world had been split in two.

And the core of the Earthly Kingdom was the crowd inside the grand auditorium of Wanghai No. 1 Middle School.

A mere thousand or so ordinary people could never shoulder the heavy task of creating an Earthly Kingdom.

But the spectators in the venue had all been selected again and again by the Night Song Bar, and had special mysterious seeds implanted within them.

The thousand-plus spectators were merely the switches to trigger the seeds' energy; the mysterious seeds within them, about to mature, were the true crux of everything.

Tang Renquan walked up to the massive stone gate, faced all the believers, and declared in a loud voice:

"I believe that the brothers and sisters here, although they have witnessed the miracle of resurrection, there must still be many among you who harbor doubts about the Lord in your hearts."

"You need not rush to defend yourselves. I say this not to blame you—it is perfectly normal. If I were in your place, I too would wonder whether the so-called miracle might be a sleight of hand, some new kind of magic trick, or some high-tech projection."

Tang Renquan came before the holy platform where the scriptures lay, and picked up a horn-shaped holy relic from the table.

"Only by personally experiencing the Lord's might can you understand His greatness. Only beneath the Lord's radiance can you and I see the world as it truly is!"

Saying this, Tang Renquan slowly turned, faced the massive stone gate, and raised the holy relic horn high in his hand.

He was the only Master of Mysticism in the venue; everything in Wanghai City had been planned by him alone, all the fruit of his painstaking effort.

Even though his condition today was poor, this final step of opening the Earthly Kingdom, he insisted on completing himself.

He began chanting obscure and incomprehensible incantations, and the horn in his hand trembled as it floated into the air.

The Gate of Heaven before the crowd, originally a doorframe formed of massive stone—at this moment, within the empty doorway, space began to twist, releasing white light points visible to the naked eye.

"Brothers and sisters, open your eyes wide and watch well—behind the Gate of Heaven is the Lord who can guide the world toward the light!"

Watching the vortex in the gate begin to erode reality, Wu Chang raised an eyebrow and thought to himself that it was time.

He restarted the mysterious backlash within Tang Renquan, while simultaneously pulling the "Summoning Calamity" effect to its maximum.

Just as Tang Renquan before the crowd was about to chant the Lord's holy name, open the Gate of Heaven, and completely activate the Earthly Kingdom—

Tang Renquan suddenly convulsed violently, his limbs twisting grotesquely, as if seized by a pair of invisible giant hands and wrung like a rag.

Crack—crack—crack—the sound of bones snapping rang out through the entire hall.

Affected by the mysterious backlash, the vortex within the Gate of Heaven began to lose control, severing from the originally connected plane and entering random matching mode.

The color of the light points emanating from the gate kept shifting—from white to black, then to red, yellow...

For a fleeting instant, Wu Chang even sensed Leiman's aura from behind the gate.

The holy relic horn suspended in the air clearly could not accept this outcome.

It emitted a low hum, attempting to resonate with the Gate of Heaven and stabilize the passage.

The holy relic horn possessed its own consciousness—this point exceeded Wu Chang's plans.

Seeing that under the horn's ability the Gate of Heaven was tending toward stability, gradually settling down, Wu Chang could no longer sit still and prepared to act.

But before he could make a move, someone was even more anxious than he was.

Tang Renquan, who had suffered harm from the mysterious backlash, had just endured the agony of his bones shattering throughout his body. Relying on a recovery item fed to him by the bishop's deputy, he caught his breath.

He stopped the bishop's deputy from attempting to take over the ritual, and with bones only just reconnected by a major recovery potion, he braced himself and sat up.

He could not allow years of painstaking effort to be ruined by his own mistake; the trouble he had caused, he must personally bring to an end!

He opened his随身 space, took out a secret medicine he had treasured for many years, and his entire body ignited in transparent flames.

Through burning himself, he greatly enhanced his willpower and inspiration in a short time. Driven by this powerful willpower and inspiration, his mysticism broke through its original bottleneck, and he faintly glimpsed the scenery above the Master of Mysticism.

He took out a religious-style candlestick, lit the candle, and once again enhanced his mystical effect.

He waved the candlestick and began chanting the incantation once more.

This was the Earthly Kingdom he had constructed! He would personally guard it!

Immediately after, amid the holy relic horn's frenzied trembling, the Gate of Heaven cleaved a bolt of lightning toward Tang Renquan—the holy relic horn, positioned between Tang Renquan and the Gate of Heaven, bore the brunt of it.

The violent lightning directly blasted the holy relic horn flying; the energy gathered upon the horn dissipated into nothing, and it became a mundane object.

Tang Renquan, on the other hand—because the holy relic horn had absorbed most of the damage—was only electrocuted black all over, still clinging to his last breath.

The holy relic destroyed, the archbishop gravely wounded—the sudden turn left the Apocalypse members in the venue momentarily at a loss.

The two bishops were, after all, management; they were the first to react, attempting to salvage the Earthly Kingdom ritual. But with a flash of Jin Guang, the two vanished before everyone's eyes.

Not only the two bishops, but the Flying Musician band, as well as the manager of the Night Song Bar and others—all disappeared before the crowd's eyes.

The crowd came to their senses and discovered a resplendent golden throne standing before the Gate of Heaven.

A mysterious figure wearing a mask, imitating Tang Renquan's manner, produced a horn and blew it fiercely.

Under the piercing, penetrating sound of the loud horn, the crowd snapped out of their daze and looked toward the stage.

Wu Chang before the crowd cleared his throat and, very naturally, picked up where Tang Renquan had left off.

"Behind the Gate of Heaven is the Lord who can guide the world toward the light! The Eternal Purifying Light!"

The moment his words fell, the vortex within the Gate of Heaven solidified, and a girl so beautiful she seemed unreal floated out from within.

That sanctity and nobility untainted by mortal air was enough to make any mortal feel inferior; if that face were ever made public, it would surely become the template for plastic surgery the world over.

Before the crowd could recover from the girl's looks, incomparably magnificent golden wings unfurled from behind her.

As the golden wings beat, the crowd felt as if bathed in a warm, gentle spring breeze; all unease, fear, and even worldly desires temporarily dissolved.

Even someone as twisted as Duan Kaiming had only serenity left in his heart.

In that moment, they felt as if they had merged into one with the world.

No words were needed to explain it—in that instant, a single thought arose in everyone.

The girl before them was the true form. Was their Lord.

Wu Chang shouted at the right moment: "At this moment, the Gates of Heaven have opened. We shall, for our Lord, the Holy Light, devote all our strength to build a divine kingdom on earth!"

The people in the venue followed Wu Chang's declaration and shouted along. As the cries grew more and more fervent, a sapling burst through the ground before the Gates of Heaven.

Amid the crowd's cheering, the sapling grew vigorously. In less than a minute, it had grown into a thick, massive tree, taller than the Gates of Heaven, its crown pressed against the ceiling of the grand auditorium.

The giant tree's root system grew along the occult ritual circuit. By the time it reached full maturity, the roots had become indistinguishable from the divine kingdom ritual itself.

The giant tree's canopy swayed; light leaked through the gaps between the leaves, forming light pillars in a Tyndall effect pattern, scattering down onto Eileen.

Under the shroud of light, a layer of gold trim was plated onto the halo of Eileen's divine true form, making her halo seem to have transformed into a crown.

Wu Chang and Eileen truly knew nothing of the occult, and could not change the final target of the occult ritual. They could not change it—but a miracle that transcended all rules could!

They only needed to make every seed of the divine kingdom on earth in the venue believe that Eileen was the master of the divine kingdom on earth, and wish for it accordingly.

The rest could be left to the false miracle.

Building a divine kingdom on earth from nothing exceeded the false miracle's capability. But changing the final target of a runaway divine kingdom on earth was not all that difficult.

The moment the false miracle grew into a giant tree and crowned Eileen, this divine kingdom on earth belonged entirely to Eileen.

Within the divine kingdom, Eileen completely broke free from the planar barrier's binding upon her, and could do what only a deity could do in the Deep Abyss.

She was seen flapping her wings to the airspace above the audience, spreading her hands diagonally downward to both sides, and chanting: "Purify!"

The moment the word "Purify" left her lips, the audience members in the venue all bent over, curling up in agony. The masks on their faces began to show cracks. The next moment, the tentacles covering their faces shattered the masks and thrashed wildly.

But under the light of purification, the filthy tentacles were like leeches thrown into a pile of salt, and stopped struggling in the blink of an eye.

The filthy energy on the surface of the tentacles was purified by the light, transforming into transparent fireflies that flew into the light, supplying nutrients for the birth of the divine kingdom.

The tentacles leaving their bodies also broke Tang Renquan's influence over the crowd. Everyone present felt their bodies lighten, their minds clearer than ever before, as if shedding a layer of shackles. Just as Tang Renquan had said, only by personally experiencing the Lord's might could one feel the Lord's greatness.

Having witnessed with their own eyes Eileen purify such terrifying things from their bodies, and personally experienced an ultimate exhilaration different from getting high, and felt Eileen's divine power, they became even more devout.

Even without the influence of occult power, one after another they voluntarily knelt before Eileen, witnessing the descent of a true god.

Although Tang Renquan and his lot were no good people, they were indeed generous in their moves. Knowing Wu Chang did not have enough energy to stabilize the divine kingdom, they had specially prepared over a thousand mature occult seeds.

Absorbing the seeds from within the crowd, the divine kingdom was fully formed, and two new entries appeared in the status column of Eileen's attribute panel.

"Status Name: Divine Kingdom"

"Status Description: While within the Divine Kingdom, you will not be bound by any rules. Within the range of the Divine Kingdom, your power will be greatly enhanced, and you will command the spatial laws within the Divine Kingdom, able to appear at any location within the Divine Kingdom at any time."

The effects of the Divine Kingdom were extremely powerful. Both Eileen's greatly enhanced power and her mastery of spatial laws raised Eileen's strength by more than a notch.

Within the Divine Kingdom, Eileen, unconstrained by the planar barrier, was nearly an invincible existence.

If someone came over to ask, "Wu Chang, when are you number one in Wanghai?" Wu Chang could now answer them right now: today!

!

Unfortunately, besides "Divine Kingdom," Eileen had one more status.

"Status: Unstable Divine Kingdom Core"

"Status Description: The divine kingdom on earth you have arranged is not perfect. During activation it was affected by an unknown force, causing the Divine Kingdom to fall into an unstable state. As the core of the divine kingdom on earth, you must remain stationed within the Divine Kingdom until it is fully stabilized. Time required for the Divine Kingdom to stabilize: 30 days."

"Note: Once you leave before the Divine Kingdom stabilizes, your Divine Kingdom will develop massive cracks, or even shatter."

Without a doubt, "Unstable Divine Kingdom Core" was definitely a side effect brought by using the false miracle.

The power required to change the final target of a runaway divine kingdom on earth was not all that much. Combined with Wu Chang's Miracle Guide talent, the side effects of the false miracle were not all that severe.

At the very least, it caused no attribute loss to Wu Chang and Eileen, nor did it diminish the Divine Kingdom's power.

If it were an ordinary player, just being unable to leave Wanghai City for thirty days could even be said to have no side effects at all.

But at this point in time, it was somewhat troublesome.

With the world dungeon approaching, every opportunity to enter a dungeon and improve was extremely precious and could not be missed.

If Wu Chang timed every entry to the dungeon at the 15-day cooldown, there would be two dungeon windows where he could not receive Eileen's support.

But if he insisted on bringing Eileen in, he would lose the hard-won divine kingdom on earth, which he also could not bear.

After a brief moment of hesitation, he suddenly laughed at himself.

The fall of a mechanical player indeed begins with discovering the wheelchair clear method.

He had only just unlocked Eileen's divine true form less than one dungeon ago, yet he was already relying on this power, and even fretting over temporarily losing it.

What a joke—back when he didn't have Eileen, hadn't he still cleared the Moonlight Sanatorium in the trial dungeon?

What problem could a mere two dungeon windows possibly pose?

He turned to look at Eileen and found that Eileen had already basically mastered the power of the divine kingdom on earth. The gold of the divine kingdom on earth not only outlined a ring of gold trim on her halo, but also formed a second pair of wings behind her.

However, the second pair of wings only had an outline and no physical form. In terms of strength, they were inferior to Eileen's own golden wings; the two pairs together could barely count as adding the strength of one more wing.

While everyone present was activating the divine kingdom on earth, they swore to devote everything to Eileen. Eileen, having obtained their oaths, could control everything about her believers.

If it were the Apocalypse, these audience members would all serve as their nails in Wanghai City. After the ritual, they could not only consolidate the divine kingdom on earth, but also, through the vast network of contacts present, build a massive underground empire.

Wu Chang had always been thrifty, and could not bear to waste Tang Renquan's kind intentions.

After some discussion, Eileen made everyone present forget everything that had happened today, sending each one home, to be awakened later and become devout believers of the Holy Light of Eternal Purity once more.

After dispersing the crowd, what remained to be dealt with were the members of the Apocalypse.

Almost back-to-back, not long after Eileen finished the divine kingdom on earth on her end, Wu Chang's True Self brought the dealt-with Apocalypse members back to reality.

The existence of the divine kingdom on earth absolutely could not be known to outsiders, so this group could not be left alive.

Fortunately, each and every one of them carried grudges on their backs. Ordinarily they could hardly be called charitable—evil deeds filled their lives.

Eliminating them could perfectly be called contributing to the Xia Kingdom, promoting the cause of breaking down non-recyclable waste. Wu Chang felt not the slightest psychological pressure in acting.

As for destroying the bodies and erasing the traces, for players, it was far too easy.

Along with the few people Wu Chang's main body had poisoned unconscious in the activity room, he stuffed them into his随身空间, had Eileen take him via teleportation to the funeral home, activated his Social Anxiety Disorder skill, and without anyone knowing, cut in line for the Apocalypse members at the crematorium.

After the ashes came out, staring at a full furnace of ashes, the crematorium worker was dumbfounded.

How did one person burn into enough ashes for twenty people? That old man who just went in—his bone hyperplasia was that severe?

After dealing with the Apocalypse members, Wu Chang left behind only one survivor.

Tang Renquan.

He had stayed in Wanghai City specifically to keep watch over Tang Renquan. If the person he was supposed to be monitoring ended up disappearing, it would be hard not to arouse suspicion, so he had to prepare a reasonable way for him to exit the stage.

Two hours later, Tang Renquan clutched his forehead and woke up in a small alley not far from the Night Song bar.

He shook his head, feeling as if his head were splitting apart. He couldn't recall what had happened before, only remembered that something terrible had occurred and that he had to run!

Get out of Wanghai City, the farther the better!

He quickly got his bearings, didn't bother to gather his things, found the fastest car in the parking lot, and headed straight out of the city.

But when a person is out of luck, even cold water chokes their teeth — the more urgently he tried to leave, the more trouble he ran into.

Every intersection he came to had a red light; after all that stop-and-go he was finally almost out of the city, and then someone rear-ended him.

Being magnanimous, he didn't make the other party pay, and kept driving outward — and wouldn't you know it, he ran straight into a DUI checkpoint.

Before the start of the Divine Kingdom on Earth, he and the Aviator band had nearly opened all the champagne in the Night Song bar ahead of time, and on top of that his head was splitting and his mind was foggy — he was sure to fail the test.

He gritted his teeth and decided to blast straight through.

Relying on his vehicle's excellent performance and the sharp reflexes of an Abyss player, after shaking off a string of police cars behind him, he finally escaped to the outer suburbs.

Five more minutes and he could leave Wanghai City!

Once he reached Wanming City, he'd be safe.

But just then, his vision went black, the car instantly lost control, and on a turn it slammed into a vehicle parked in front of a convenience store.

Meng Yawen, just stepping out of the convenience store, had only just twisted the cap off the mineral water in her hand and hadn't had time to drink, when she watched helplessly as her brand-new car — barely picked up — was smashed directly into a twisted wreck.

The driver's side door had been crushed out of shape; if she had been inside, even with a tough enough frame, she'd have been knocked into a concussion.

What the hell, this is Wanghai City, not Los Santos — driving like this, are you trying to go mad?!

"How the hell do you drive, kid! Get out here, let me teach you on behalf of your parents what safe driving means!"

The door of the offending car opened, and a man clutching his head, looking utterly drained, staggered out.

"Get as far away as you can, I'm busy right now, no time to waste on you."

Looking at the familiar man before her, Meng Yawen's expression turned strange, and she said mockingly, "And what if I insist you stay?"

"Then go to hell!" Tormented by the headache, Tang Renquan didn't care who was in front of him, took her for just some stubborn female passerby, and threw a punch on the spot.

He put his full strength into that punch — an ordinary person hit by it would either die or be crippled.

Meng Yawen's eyes lit up instantly; she immediately turned on her body camera and threw a punch even heavier than Tang Renquan's.

"You threw the first punch!"

Hm? Why does this woman's voice sound a little familiar?

Tang Renquan didn't get the chance to figure out whose voice it was before sudden, violent pain shot through his entire body, as if he had come down with a dozen terminal illnesses all at once; the intense agony instantly drained the power from his body, and he crashed into Meng Yawen's fist completely defenseless.

The next instant, as if he'd been hit by a dump truck, he went tumbling through the air, and when he hit the ground, his head was already lolling.

Meng Yawen stared at Tang Renquan, who was barely breathing in but not breathing out, completely dumbfounded.

"No way — you're pulling a scam!"

On the other side, having used the Calamity effect to have Meng Yawen take out Tang Renquan, Wu Chang, who had remained in the Wanghai No. 1 High School auditorium, finished setting up the last reality anchor point and chose to complete the quest.

"Player has completed Transfer Quest One: In the real world, find at least three areas polluted by occultism and set up anchor points to the real world."

"Beginning quest evaluation."

(End of chapter)