The "recapture" mission in Nanku went smoothly enough.

For the transcendent beings from the Four Continents carrying out the southward mission, recapturing twenty residential areas was not difficult.

Perhaps the only "trouble" was dealing with the local "extremists"... The methods used by the Tower of Origin and Light City were simple and crude. The former slaughtered all disobedient extremists, while the latter took out the Gospel Scripture for "spiritual conversion."

The methods of the Northern and Eastern Continents were relatively "gentle."

Because of Lu Zhe and Gu Shen, the hypnotic abilities of top-tier mentalists could directly shut these "extremists" up and make them obey.

Of course…

If the "extremists" were truly extreme, everyone would take the same action as the Tower of Origin.

The Holy City's stationed forces had not yet arrived, and the Four Continents were too lazy to bother with so many rules. Completing the "power consolidation" as quickly as possible was the most important thing.

After finishing the collection of clues about "Mr. Zhuang" and the "Neutrals," Gu Shen set off from the S3 residential area. He maintained mental contact with Bai Xiu. Little Xiu's [Thunder Realm Walker] belonged to the trait system. Like Gu Shen's [Blazing Fire], each had its own focus. [Thunder Realm Walker] leaned more towards the ultimate attack and kill of the natural system, but "hypnotic abilities" could also be used.

It was enough to deal with some low-level transcendent beings.

The western residential areas of Nanku had basically completed the "recapture."

Wu Yong led his subordinates back to the S3 residential area and completed the handover with Gu Shen. This team would be dispersed and stationed, continuing to advance westward in small teams until they finally met up with Bai Xiu. At this point, the two hundred transcendent beings brought by the Eastern Continent would be gradually dispersed and stationed in the nineteen residential areas of Nanku.

Gu Shen, on the other hand, set off directly towards the east.

"S12 residential area" had encountered some trouble. As the largest "bastion" in Nanku, a key urban area adjacent to the Central Continent, the "assault" here had ended.

Chen Mei and Shen Li had tied up the leader of the "Blazing Wave Church" and all his subordinates. However, although the two of them were first-class fighters, they did not possess the ability of mental hypnosis and had no way to "convert" these stubborn fanatics.

…

…

As dawn broke,

Gu Shen arrived at the main urban area of the Blazing Wave Church. The walls here were indeed beautifully built and looked like they could withstand hand cannon bombardments. There was basically no need to worry about attacks from foreign transcendent creatures.

"Ugh!"

"Wuwuwu!"

On the city wall, nearly a hundred extremists were tied together. They wore fiery red Blazing Wave Church robes, their mouths were blocked, and their wrists were bound... In fact, the materials used for the binding were not high-grade. If they were determined to break free, they still had a chance to do so.

However, they didn't do it.

Because Shen Li, sitting on the city wall, was carrying an iron mace on his shoulder, scanning these obediently lying-down cultists…

The faces of these cultists were bruised and trembling.

All night long, whoever dared to move, whoever wanted to escape, he would hit!

On the S12 high wall, there was also a figure sitting cross-legged at the highest point, bathing in the sunlight.

For low-level transcendent beings… "Time Slow" was simply a dimensional reduction strike.

This was something more terrifying than Shen Li's iron棒.

With Chen Mei around, they simply couldn't escape.

"Thank you both for your hard work."

Gu Shen came to the top of the S12 wall and saw this scene. His expression was a little strange… Chen Mei and Shen Li's way of subduing the extremists' territory was a bit too primitive, reasonable, and unexpected.

"Are there only so few 'extremists' in this urban area?" Gu Shen looked around and transmitted his voice.

"Yes."

Chen Mei nodded, "In the entire S12 residential area, there are close to one thousand five hundred survivors… but the 'residents' in the main urban area don't seem to believe in the 'Blazing Wave.'"

"Oh?"

Gu Shen squatted down and examined a bound Blazing Wave cultist. His mental power swept out, covering half of the S12 urban area… He roughly understood what Chen Mei meant. This was another area similar to "Tin Silver City." The extremists of the Blazing Wave Church belonged to the "higher class" in Sangzhou Cave. The places where they lived were beautiful and exquisite. Even during the "awakening experiment," they had ample resources to enjoy.

And in the entire S12 urban area, more than 80% of the area was dilapidated and defeated, similar to Vias's hometown. The vast majority of civilians in Sangzhou Cave lived in misery…

The buildings were crooked, and the roads were muddy.

No matter what era it was, there would always be "bloodsuckers."

He stretched out two fingers and gently pressed on the head of the struggling man. Blazing Fire crashed into the latter's mental sea… This Blazing Wave cultist even wore a pendant to prevent mental attacks, but unfortunately, the pendant shattered instantly.

Gu Shen's mental power entered the man's mind without hindrance.

He casually browsed through the man's memories…

After the awakening experiment began, the Blazing Wave Church in the inland of the Southern Continent officially withdrew, and a large number of cultists left Sangzhou Cave… Among them, there were also some natives of Sangzhou Cave who, because they had become "backbone cores" recognized by the Church, took the opportunity to escape this impoverished island.

As a result, the S12 residential area became "empty."

The real "Blazing Wave cultists" left, and those who were not recognized by the Blazing Wave Church, desperate followers… became the "rulers." They put on self-made Blazing Wave Church robes, occupied the "wealth" left by the former, and took down the city's walls.

Because of the church's early struggles, this urban area had built "high walls" a long time ago, so after the "transcendent awakening" fully occurred, it basically did not suffer attacks from transcendent creatures.

A new generation of class divisions was born in the closed and complete "S12 urban area."

These losers who had not been recognized by the Blazing Wave Church before were now the masters of the urban area, and they began to exploit internally. Instead of continuing to spread the "faith" to the people within the walls, because in this closed environment… the qualification to enjoy privileges was this "Blazing Wave robe." If everyone believed in the Blazing Wave, then they would no longer be noble.

"…"

Gu Shen stood up, silent.

Scum.

It wasn't even accurate to use such a word to describe them…

On the way here, he had seen many small urban areas that had been breached by transcendent creatures. Countless victims died in the teeth of beasts. However, the internal situation of the only completely preserved "S12 urban area" was not better than those small urban areas that were "rebuilt after the disaster."

Because the beasts in this urban area lived inside the walls.

"Gu Shen, what should we do with these people?"

Shen Li said unhappily: "These guys are all well-fed and pampered. They have built mansions inside the walls, and their courtyards are full of food. Some of it is about to rot… I saw those residents behind the urban area, each one of them was so hungry that they were skin and bones."

The most fundamental reason for this situation… was actually the "inequality" of transcendent awakening.

This time, [Deep Sea] only pursued the awakening rate.

In the Five Continents, transcendent beings who awakened abilities, the weakest level, would generally be given a "E grade." Although transcendent beings of this level would not be formally accepted by the Three Great Institutes, they would also be taken in by the [Deep Water Area]. Generally, the "Command Post" was responsible for unified warfare and supervision. As long as they slowly cultivated, they would always have the opportunity to go further…

But in Sangzhou Cave, this was not possible.

The vast majority of "Awakened Ones" were weak, and coupled with the fact that they couldn't even get enough to eat, it was impossible for them to resist.

There were too few "S grades" like Mu Wanqiu, who started killing randomly after their first awakening.

"Why don't we just smash them to death."

Shen Li waved his mace.

"You can kill one, you can kill a hundred… but can you kill all the extremists in Sangzhou Cave?"

Chen Mei spoke at this moment. His tone was calm: "I don't object to killing them all, but the main task of the Eastern Continent's southward mission is to solve the 'transcendent creatures.' The power of two hundred transcendent beings is not enough. We still need the aid of the Holy City. If these people are all killed, the subsequent transcendent beings stationed by the Storm Church will have trouble."

Shen Li's expression was a little complicated.

Yes… what was the point of killing these people? Was this land so scarlet because of these people?

If you killed them, they would emerge again.

He looked at Gu Shen.

Gu Shen stood on the city wall, looking at these Blazing Wave cultists who were glaring at him.

"Brother Gu, I'll leave these people to you to deal with."

Chen Mei yawned, stretched, and said lightly: "I'll go take a look at Su Cha's situation and check the activity of 'transcendent creatures' on the outer ring… This large urban area doesn't have to worry about beast attacks, but I heard that some small residential areas haven't built walls yet. There's still a chance to save those places without 'extremists.'"

After saying that,

He jumped off the S12 high wall and quickly disappeared without a trace.

…

…

Were these people to be killed or kept?

Gu Shen fell into thought.

He originally wanted to rush here and directly hypnotize them with Blazing Fire…

But when he saw the specific situation of the S12 urban area, his thoughts wavered a little.

This was another microcosm of Tin Silver City.

Some people lived in luxury, partying every night, while others were starving and poorly clothed.

From the perspective of "borrowing momentum," keeping the lives of these Blazing Wave cultists might be the rational choice. The Holy City would "gift" stationed forces to the Four Continents free of charge, and the Storm Church's subsequent stationing was about to arrive.

But were they really the momentum he wanted to "borrow"?

"…"

After a moment of contemplation,

Gu Shen slowly raised his hand. His Pure Land domain was released at this moment, covering the entire high wall… Countless blue frosts spread, and the large robes engraved with fiery red waves were frozen at this moment.

Blazing Fire crashed into the minds of these church transcendent beings.

Shen Li widened his eyes, watching this scene.

It was the first time he had seen a scene where dozens of low-level transcendent beings' mental seas were read at the same time… One picture after another popped up. The "pictures" that had occurred in the S12 urban area in the past three years were concretized by Gu Shen's mental power and projected into the sky above the city wall.

This was for himself to see, and also for Shen Li to see.

That swaying scarlet flag seemed to be dyed red with blood—

In the picture, there were women's howls and babies' cries.

There were old people being whipped with iron whips, and young adults rising up to resist, then being shot to death by bullets, and finally trampled and dismembered…

The "exploitation" in this miserable urban area was happening all the time.

The church was gone.

But the church was not gone either.

The demons left, but "enslavement" remained—

Many innocent lives were lost in this main urban area. What was truly "regrettable" was the "death" of these people, not because of transcendent creatures, but because of the excessive enslavement of these "Blazing Wave extremists."

Shen Li, who was born in Nagano, only occasionally went out to perform tasks on weekdays.

He had been to a few Outer Continents.

But under the influence of [Balancing], how could he have imagined… that there were such hellish scenes in this world?

The veins on the Little Iron Man's forehead bulged.

After seeing half of it, Gu Shen waved his hand and dismissed these mental images.

The subsequent images were just repeating… and he had actually seen such suffering once in Tin Silver City…

A soft sigh.

"I wanted to convert you."

He looked at these frozen people expressionlessly and said softly, "But you don't seem to have any room for conversion… I can only deliver you…"

"Deliver?"

Shen Li was stunned for a moment.

"Kacha Kacha Kacha!"

The next moment, countless sounds of bursting and shattering bloomed in an instant, extremely melodious!

The "Pure Land" shattered and collapsed with these people, and their spirits were sucked into the domain along with them…

The Little Iron Man looked shocked.

He had said earlier that he wanted to kill these people…

But he didn't expect that Gu Shen would really kill them all with a wave of his hand!

He didn't know that the "deliverance" in Gu Shen's mouth was not just talk.

This was deliverance in the true sense. There were a total of one hundred and seventeen extremists in the S12 urban area, and now these people were all sent to the Pure Land.

Although the scene at this moment was very refreshing,

Shen Li thought of what Chen Mei said later and couldn't help but have a headache.

"You killed them… the transcendent beings of the 'Storm Church' will be stationed later. Have you thought about what to do next?"

Gu Shen smiled and asked, "Doesn't the Tower of Origin kill in this situation?"

Shen Li was stunned for a second: "Kill, they will definitely kill…"

Regardless of others, just Zhuque alone would have eliminated those guys with only Storm beliefs in their heads long ago when she saw them.

"The City of Light will kill, and the Northern Continent will also kill."

Gu Shen said lightly: "Then why don't we kill?"

"Keeping these people will only be trouble… Since the Storm Church didn't recognize them back then, why worry about the future? The people in the inland of the Southern Continent value human lives even less than they do."

"So… killing them is killing them. To take a step back, even if the Saint comes, what can he do without evidence?"

"Remember, there have never been believers of the 'Blazing Wave Church' here… Three years ago, all the believers withdrew."

He glanced at the "Blazing Wave Flag" on the high wall.

"Boom!"

The flag was set on fire by Gu Shen's Blazing Fire and turned into ashes in an instant.

"Gather the aborigines of the main urban area."

Gu Shen said calmly: "My mental power… is not meant to be used on these 'extremists.'"

He had already figured it out—

He wanted to borrow momentum! But he was borrowing the momentum of the "Neutrals." The undercurrents in Sangzhou Cave had been surging for many years. During the three years of closed experiments, oppression and exploitation continued, but the emergence of "transcendent awakening" had already ignited a spark here.

Even if he didn't come, as long as it was kept closed,

The spark would ignite sooner or later—

There were one thousand five hundred aborigines here, and everyone had awakened transcendent power…

Although weak,

A single spark can start a prairie fire.

What was truly worthy of him using "Blazing Fire" to call and give spiritual guidance was not these incurable "extremists." In the past, there were people like Mr. Zhuang who were willing to be an unknown "do-gooder" under the undercurrent.

Now that he was here, he couldn't find clues about the "Neutrals," but he could choose to put what the "Neutrals" did on the table and do it again.