Chapter 1 The Believers

Over the years, Toze Shozo had cultivated more than three thousand followers, scattered across the various islands of the Ise Bay Archipelago.

Under the influence of the "methods" taught at the shrine.

These followers were wholeheartedly devoted to Toze Shozo, and revered him as the legendary "Snake God." Besides these ordinary mortals, many high-ranking members of the Toze family had also accepted the purification of the "Snake God" faith.

The Snake God… it sounded laughable.

But in the eyes of those fanatical converts, it was the greatest existence in the Five Continents.

Light, Storm? All trash. Compared to the great Snake God, Toze Shozo, these two false gods were only fit to lick his shoes.

These fanatical followers were beyond salvation.

Even "hypnosis" couldn't change their tragic fate... After being eroded and poisoned by zealous belief, forced hypnotic brainwashing would only lead to the collapse of their spiritual sea.

"What do you plan to do with these people?"

Song Ci stood on the small mountain, a complex expression on his face. He saw these villagers imprisoned by the [Poison Nest], living day and night with venomous snakes.

Kill them? That would be inhumane.

Release them? Even less possible.

"It's difficult to deal with, but I have a way."

Gu Shen stood with his hands behind his back, his eyes coldly watching the village below the mountain, and said, "I'll handle the aftermath of these believers myself..."

"I don't understand, what is the Shrine trying to achieve by teaching Toze Shozo to cultivate believers?"

Song Ci asked in confusion, "Guang Ming City is also a place of faith, doesn't it understand the duality of fanatical believers?"

Fanatical believers were a double-edged sword.

"I'm also very curious." Chen Li added, "What benefit does Guang Ming City's behind-the-scenes guide get from having Toze Shozo cultivate so many followers? These followers believe in the [Snake God], not the God of Light... To enable Toze Shozo to cultivate a sufficient number of believers, it even set up a reward mechanism."

If he hadn't seen the [Holy Book] of Guang Ming City.

Gu Shen wouldn't have understood this question.

But now the answer was obvious.

The Shrine of West Continent was using Toze Shozo, their so-called guidance was just to reap the benefits. After Toze Shozo cultivated those [Snake God] believers, they would help the Toze family relocate to West Continent...

The next step was to plunder their faith!

With the [Holy Book] in hand, as long as Toze Shozo went to West Continent, his hard work over the years would instantly become a wedding dress for someone else.

Guang Ming City would naturally reach out and accept these believers with a smile.

Gu Shen shook his head and mocked, "There's no such thing as a free lunch in this world. The more you get, the more you give away."

He told Song Ci and Chen Li about the existence of the [Holy Book].

Both of them felt a chill down their spines.

Especially Chen Li.

"Able to plunder faith, transform believers..."

Little Iron Man felt his hair stand on end, because he recalled what the Holy Son Su Ye had done during the Sang Continent Abyss mission five years ago, and the massacre of transcendents in the jurisdiction by Guang Ming City when they left the island.

So West Continent had already been plotting to plunder faith at that time!

"Do you remember Toze Shozo's final 'transformation'?"

Gu Shen said calmly, "If I'm not mistaken, this should also be a special method taught to him by the guide from Guang Ming City... In the cognition of the two major churches, mortal faith is actually a kind of spirit. This spiritual power is very weak when viewed individually, but its advantage lies in accumulating little by little, with no upper limit. If a sufficient number of 'believers' are willing to dedicate their spirit, then the one being worshiped might really be able to create miracles."

Chen Li and Song Ci exchanged a look.

They remembered very clearly that after Toze Shozo broke out of the life pod and appeared, he looked much younger... This was a "final burst of glory" that defied common sense.

If it were Mr. Bai Shu who did this, it wouldn't be surprising.

But Toze Shozo's [Poison Nest] had nothing to do with time ability.

He also didn't have any special sealed objects on him. It was obvious... that this was a miracle created by the "power of faith."

Unfortunately.

The difference in strength between Toze Shozo and Gu Shen was too great, even with a final burst of glory, he could only be instantly killed.

"Toze Shozo has always acted cautiously throughout his life, and his ambition is extremely great. If it weren't for sufficient temptation, why would he willingly hide in a place where the sun never shines to refine these powers of faith?"

Gu Shen looked at the broken warehouse and said with some regret, "I just don't know how long the 'faith' provided by the Ise Bay Archipelago is enough for him to have his final burst of glory."

He somewhat regretted striking too quickly.

If he could do it again.

Gu Shen wanted to see how long Toze Shozo could maintain this state.

What he was curious about was not Toze Shozo, but the upper limit of this "forbidden technique."

The amount of "power of faith" that the Toze family possessed was like a spark compared to the bright moon when compared to Guang Ming City. The difference between the two was too great.

If the Divine Seat of West Continent personally cast this spell...

What would the scene be like?

Guang Ming City had been cultivating faith and harvesting spiritual power all these years. No one knew what they wanted to do, but through the "Toze family" case, Gu Shen vaguely guessed some forbidden truths.

Upon careful calculation, the age of the Divine Seat of Light was already very high.

Except for Qing Long, the Divine Seats of the past basically didn't have very long lives.

Melting a fire seed would certainly bring powerful vitality to the Divine Seat.

But becoming the leader of the Five Continents also meant being entangled by a large amount of misfortune.

Every time the Divine Seat made a move, every time it spent divine power, it was actually at the cost of consuming its lifespan. They possessed a long life, but the premise was that they didn't move. As long as the Five Continents were still in a state of being wrapped in chaos, they wouldn't be able to achieve "immobility."

The massive harvesting of faith power and cultivation of believers in West Continent was very likely...

Because the life of the Divine Seat of Light was coming to an end.

No one in this world could fight against life and death, not even the King of the Underworld.

……

……

After Toze Longchang confessed the list of defectors, the subsequent handling of the incident became very simple.

There was no need for Gu Shen to come forward.

Chen Li sent the list to Nagano.

With his current status as the Fourth Judge, the list immediately attracted the attention of the upper echelons of East Continent. The Three Offices and Five Great Families established a special investigation team that day, and the Ise Bay Archipelago was taken over and controlled overnight, and the entire Ying Sea area was sealed off.

Under the instruction of Mr. Shan, the "Toze" betrayal case was to be personally investigated by Chen Li, and the latest situation was to be presented at any time.

As for the group of Snake God believers on the archipelago, Gu Shen gathered them together.

He thought about how to deal with these people...

With the death of Toze Shozo and the disintegration of the entire Toze family, no one would maintain the "evangelism" anymore. If left unattended, the fate of these believers would probably be a gradual mental breakdown, and before that, they would constantly launch attacks on the outside world.

Releasing them was impossible; these people were no different from the out-of-control.

Killing them was the best option.

But killing so many people... Gu Shen didn't want to bear this unprovoked "disaster." If the former King of the Underworld saw this task, he would be very happy to do it.

More than three thousand people would be a very considerable force in the Pure Land.

The Pure Land didn't lack souls at the moment, and Gu Shen didn't want to increase the consumption of the Pure Land's source matter.

So he thought of a compromise.

In a basin on Wu Dai Island, more than three thousand Snake God believers were gathered. A torrential rain poured down on the dark sky, and a glimmer of fire burned in the darkness. Gu Shen stood at the highest point of the mountain range. He set up a large mental barrier, encompassing half of Wu Dai Island. All the followers cultivated by Toze Shozo were here, with no one missing.

"Chi."

The lighting of the fire attracted the attention of countless believers.

These emaciated believers all had vertical pupils. Their bodies had dense cracks. These people were both Toze Shozo's death warriors and the feed for the Poison Nest.

Their flesh and blood were specifically used for venomous snakes to extract nutrients.

"These death warriors are too weak..."

Gu Shen frowned as he watched this scene, a look of disgust on his face.

He strongly suspected that if there was no external intervention, on the day that Toze Shozo and Guang Ming City made a deal, the latter would be willing to take in these dirty, weak believers who were full of poison...

At least, he wasn't very willing.

"Boom..."

Gu Shen took out two incomplete, withered papers and injected spiritual power into them. The two withered papers burned with a large amount of radiance at this moment.

He knew that Guang Ming City's plan was to use the [Holy Book] to transform faith...

Now, he was prepared to intercept it in advance.

Although the Snake God followers cultivated by Toze Shozo looked sinister and dirty, Gu Shen still decided to bring them under his command... and not the kind that would be brought into the Pure Land.

Unlike the so-called Snake God faith.

Gu Shen was the true Lord of the Seven Gods! The true master of the Netherworld Fire!

These people were infected with snake venom. Without Toze Shozo to prolong their lives, it was hard to say whether they could survive for more than a month.

His Fire of Life could save these people's lives.

Gu Shen hadn't caught the Shrine's instigator in this operation.

Guang Ming City had guided Toze Shozo and then retreated unscathed... The instigator hadn't paid any price at all.

The Nagano purge was painless to that person.

Perhaps when he met with Toze Shozo back then, the instigator knew that this place would be discovered one day.

Guang Ming City hadn't left a single believer in the Ise Bay Archipelago.

Not even a single Saint Judge.

This was enough to prove that the Shrine had completely treated Toze Shozo as a pawn.

But after today, the storm would gradually subside.

In case a Saint Judge from West Continent came here with the [Holy Book] to harvest faith in the future... these believers who had already transferred their faith could come in handy.

The blazing fire illuminated the rainy night.

Thunder suddenly burst, splashing countless shrieks.

The Snake God followers all prostrated themselves. A large amount of pus and blood flowed from their bodies. Countless venomous snakes were forced out by the blazing fire, screaming and turning into ashes in the firelight.

A large amount of mist rose in the basin.

Gu Shen took out the [Snuff Bottle], released a drop of Netherworld River Poison, and completely annihilated Toze Shozo's low-level spiritual toxins.

Next, Gu Shen released the "Fire of Life."

Boom!

Now the blazing fire had a monstrous momentum, and it formed a sea of fire in a matter of seconds.

In the sea of fire, the believers trembled. Their spiritual seas were bearing the majestic power of the [Holy Book] to wash away their beliefs, and the knowledge in their hearts was being violently overturned. Their bodies were also undergoing transformation under the scouring of the hot Fire of Life.

The wounds on their bodies where they had been bitten by venomous snakes quickly scabbed over and fell off.

This was the mark of worshiping the Snake God. These scars might never disappear for the rest of their lives, but from this moment on, everyone felt a daze and ease in their hearts.

This was the effect of the [Holy Book].

Their faith had been completely washed away.

"From this day forward... you will no longer be Snake God followers."

These people raised their heads in a daze.

Gu Shen's voice was like a divine decree, word by word: "You don't need to feed yourselves to snakes, you don't need to cultivate venomous plants, you don't need to worship and kowtow every day, you just need to know... that your current faith is called 'Pure Land.'"

The former Snake God followers looked at the magnificent figure wrapped in firelight on the top of the mountain.

Boom——

Gu Shen's mental barrier was activated at this moment, and all of these believers were pulled into the dream world.

Thousands of branches and leaves fluttered, and countless golden ears of grain danced.

Compared to the [Poison Nest].

This was simply a perfect country, without pain, without suffering, without torture.

This country was called Pure Land.