“`
The best way to lessen the blame was, of course, to find the missing War Apostle.
But that was quite unrealistic.
According to the National Religion, the Sainte-Lys Nun Association, and the Psychic Cultivator’s Association, based on the investigations of the past two days, they had calculated many possibilities, but almost none were good news.
Although they still held a sliver of hope and were searching, they also needed to think of other methods.
Gu Hang was the method they had come up with.
It was not easy to talk to the Battle Nuns, these ‘daughters of The Emperor’ had always followed their own rules; both the National Religion and the Psychic Cultivator’s Association had been approached, and the reports they would issue subsequently would favor the leadership and Governor Akuna, trying to remove some of the blame from them.
They still didn’t feel secure, and now they had approached Gu Hang.
The implication was rather straightforward.
Gu Hang had already shown great Spiritual Energy, and his words undoubtedly carried more weight.
After considering it, he expressed his intentions: he would help out after he joined the investigation in a couple of days, depending on the situation at the scene.
The two high-ranking officials thanked him profusely in low voices and didn’t stay much longer before they left.
Despite getting what they wanted, their faces still could not be considered relaxed.
The situation was still very bleak.
While Gu Hang felt sympathy for the two men, he had no intention of truly helping them.
What use was mitigating blame? If one hundred percent blame would get them killed, they already had at least two hundred percent. What use would it be if Gu Hang helped to reduce it by fifteen or twenty percent?
The Empire was never reasonable in this respect.
Moreover, Gu Hang himself needed someone to take the fall.
After seeing off the two officials, and telling his mother that he needed to rest, he gained some space to be alone.
The area around his temporarily living quarters had been set up with a Spiritual Energy barrier, ensuring that nothing he did inside would be detected by the outside world.
He first checked the barrier and found no problems, then he sat cross-legged on the carpet and closed his eyes.
The next moment, his consciousness descended into the Storm God Kingdom.
Here, a war was underway.
Countless Heroic Spirit Warriors were fighting to the death against Plague Demons.
This battle had been going on for several days.
At first, the number of Plague Demons appeared overwhelming, swarming in. But by now, they had been thoroughly annihilated.
The cost was not small.
More than three thousand spirits living within the Storm God Kingdom had been sacrificed. Their souls had been torn apart under the Abyssal Evil Magic and even Gu Hang did not have the power to summon them back.
This was a significant loss.
There weren’t many Heroic Spirits to begin with; the original batch came from the souls of human soldiers who had sacrificed themselves in the Divine Realm during the battle against the Primordial Rage Owl God; thereafter, every soldier who had been trained through Gu Hang’s “Soldier Tag” system and who had died in battle also came here.
At its peak, there were over thirty thousand Heroic Spirits in the Divine Realm. Most of them were from the casualties of the Heijian Star battle and the Western Front on Rage Owl Star, with a very few from the Green Valley Group Army who had been combating the Aberrant Beasts in the jungle.
The loss of three thousand Heroic Spirits meant a ten percent reduction in their numbers.
“`
And these heroic spirits, in essence apart from being the souls of the warriors, were also the incarnations of the power of the Storm God Kingdom. Unlike the Storm Beasts casually created by the Primordial Rage Owl, each of these heroic spirits possessed much greater strength, each sharing a part of the Storm Divine Power.
Such immense sacrifice also significantly drained the Storm God Kingdom itself.
But this was the price that Gu Hang had to pay, there was no other way.
The Plague Demon attack that took place in the upper district of Mingyan City was orchestrated by him alone.
After receiving the banquet invitation from Galaraldo, Gu Hang planned to make his move. As long as the incident didn’t unfold on Rage Owl Star, he was confident it would go unnoticed by gods and ghosts alike.
The means he used, of course, hinged on the Storm God Kingdom he controlled. With the essence of a Subspace Inferior God in his hands, this was the best opportunity to use it.
His original plan was simply to employ the characteristics of the Divine Realm to open a subspace rift and drag Galaraldo into the Storm God Kingdom.
Just pulling a soul in, just as the alliance’s forces were dragged into the Storm God Kingdom during their attack on Extreme North Industrial City.
If successful, Gu Hang could have killed the man without anyone the wiser.
However, upon arriving at Korolya III, Gu Hang discovered an even better method.
The situation on Korolya III was more severe than he had imagined, far worse than the south of Rage Owl Star when it was invaded by Demons a year prior.
Despite the emergence of Great Demon incarnations within the sea platforms to the south of Green Valley at that time, essentially, that was an overzealous attempt by the Great Unclean One. In terms of scale, the Cult had exhausted great effort to open a mere Abyssal rift through the energy of a still-functional Spiritualized Gas Field on the sea platform.
But on Korolya III, such Abyssal rifts were innumerable.
If Gu Hang were merely a top-tier Psychic, his perception might not be so clear. But as he also controlled the source power of a Subspace Inferior God, the bonus this added was substantial.
The interior of Korolya III was riddled with holes, ravaged beyond recognition. It was unclear how long the Cultists had been working in the shadows on this planet with a population of forty billion, using Dark Magic and sacrifices, infecting countless people, thinning the veil between the planet and the Subspace Abyss to its breaking point.
Here, tearing open an Abyssal rift was quite easy. From within the Storm God Kingdom, the conquered Nest Capital already had countless such rifts.
Moreover, the current invasion of Korolya III was likely backed by the forces under the Chaos Lord known as the ‘Benevolent Father.’
This was the crisis facing Korolya III.
According to Gu Hang’s assessment, the crisis facing the planet was already significant. Yet in reality, it was merely the beginning. The forthcoming disasters would likely sweep across the globe, engulfing every Nest Capital. One wrong move, and the catastrophe that forty billion people would endure might be colossal.
If such a scenario unfolded and Korolya III fell, the entire Tianma Star Sector would be doomed—the souls of forty billion humans, amidst the suffering and despair of the plague, would completely open a colossal Abyssal rift, dragging the entire planet into the Subspace. From this vast, planet-sized black hole, legions of Chaos would swarm out, with Demon Fleets carrying the Chaos armies to slaughter those in the surrounding area.
This was the crisis that could destroy the entire Star Sector.
Of course, Gu Hang was vigilant about this, with his Rage Owl Star being just next to Korolya III, a mere Star Realm Tunnel jump away. Should the worst occur, if Korolya fell first, Rage Owl Star would be the next to go.
But the crisis on Korolya could wait—its present massive invasion by the ‘Benevolent Father’s’ domain presented Gu Hang with an excellent opportunity to deal with Galaraldo.
What he had to do was not difficult.
First, he had to tear open a rift from the Divine Realm to the Father’s Domain within his Storm God Kingdom—a remarkably simple task. Subspace, while not the same as the real universe, still had myriad connections to it. When Gu Hang arrived at Korolya III, close to the ‘Benevolent Father’s’ domain, his Storm God Kingdom also neared the Father’s Domain.
Of course, he wasn’t seen as an enemy by the ‘Benevolent Father’—like an ant wandering near a giant, unnoticed, disregarded even if seen.
After opening the rift and allowing a fair share of Plague Demons to rush in, he then had to create one or more rifts in the real world, right above the banquet hall and the surrounding area, and connect them together. That would amount to a corridor from the real world directly into the Father’s Domain of the Abyss.
The rotting dragon and the Plague Demons that emerged from the ground all arrived in that manner.
————
I couldn’t resist falling asleep last night, didn’t finish writing…