Chapter 31 | Playing Goddess in a Dying Dynasty

Shen Jue and Shen Yu both furrowed their brows.

Once the seeds of fear are sown in the heart, they only need a little nourishment to grow into a towering tree.

And the swarm of locusts drawing closer on the horizon was the perfect nourishment.

Zhao Qian, who was slumped on the ground, also looked up. The terror in his eyes was slowly being replaced by a form of madness.

His actions could no longer be concealed.

Moreover, he had offended the current Great General, Shen Jue. Coupled with the impending locust plague, he would be lucky to escape with his life.

As things stood, he had to find a way to shift the blame.

Listening to the murmurs of the commoners around him, he gritted his teeth and stood beside Daoist Master Xuan He, glaring at Yun Shu and the others.

“It is you! You are the ones who offended the Locust God!” His voice grew louder. “If you hadn't disrupted the ritual, the locusts would never have descended upon Xindu City!”

Below the altar, the commotion among the people grew more intense.

Daoist Master Xuan He took a deep breath, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and straightened his disheveled Daoist robes, once again assuming his air of transcendent divinity.

“Elders of Xindu, this humble Daoist has cultivated for decades, always taking the salvation of the world as my personal responsibility.”

He wore an expression of carefully crafted compassion. “Regarding today’s events, my conscience is clear!”

His gaze swept over the commoners. Seeing their uncertain and wavering expressions, he continued, “The Locust God’s wrath has already descended; it is unavoidable.”

“Though I am of limited talent, I am willing to exhaust all I have learned in my life to seek a glimmer of hope for the people of Xindu.”

Someone in the crowd asked in a trembling voice, “Daoist Master, do you really have a way?”

Daoist Master Xuan He tilted his head slightly, a fleeting look of triumph flashing in his eyes.

Of course he had a way. His junior fellow disciple, the reincarnation of a celestial, possessed knowledge of the future. Long before sending him to Xindu City, he had told him the method to eradicate the locusts.

He had originally planned to reveal it after the ritual to elevate his prestige to new heights.

He hadn't expected someone to ruin his plans.

But it didn't matter.

Revealing it now would only produce a better effect.

“This humble Daoist has his ways to appease the Locust God and minimize the disaster, but there is one condition.”

He slowly turned his head, his gaze falling on Yun Shu, his lips curling into a cold, sinister arc. “This witch has bewitched the people, disrupted the ritual, and offended the Locust God. She is the true source of this calamity. If she and her people do not leave Xindu City, even if I possessed heaven-reaching powers, I would be unable to calm the Locust God’s wrath.”

These words echoed over the ritual altar like a stone cast into a lake, creating ripple after ripple.

The commoners looked at one another.

The dark shadow of the locusts drew closer and closer, the buzzing of their vibrating wings making everyone’s scalp tingle with dread.

That overwhelming sense of pressure pushed everyone’s sanity to the brink of collapse.

“The Daoist Master is right!”

Someone shouted first, and soon, more and more people began to join in.

“Drive her out of Xindu City!”

“It’s all her fault!”

“The Locust God will only be appeased once she is gone!”

The faces that had previously been prostrated on the ground, begging for the Divine Lady’s protection, suddenly twisted into a different form.

Several bold, burly men charged onto the altar.

Shen Jue’s eyes turned cold as he stepped in front of Yun Shu, his body coiled like a drawn bow, ready to strike.

Shen Yu also stood by Yun Shu’s side at some unknown point.

They knew the Divine Lady possessed boundless power and had no need for protection from mortals like them, but knowing it was one thing; acting on it was another.

The Divine Lady protected all living beings, and they had no way to repay her except by offering her their sincere devotion.

The two sides faced off on the altar.

The atmosphere was thick with tension.

At that moment, the sky went dark.

The locusts, blotting out the sky like an infinite black curtain, pressed down directly from the heavens.

The commoners scattered in a panic, the scene turning into total chaos. No one cared anymore about driving Yun Shu and the others out of Xindu.

Zhao Qian clutched his head with both hands, shivering uncontrollably.

Although Daoist Master Xuan He forced himself not to show fear, his heart also quailed in the face of tens of thousands of locusts.

The locusts dove down, surging forward like a tide.

“Qiuyu, you dared to descend to the mortal realm without permission and bring calamity to the people. Follow me back to the Ninth Heaven at once to receive your punishment.”

A cold, clear voice rang out.

At that exact moment, millions of locusts froze in mid-air.

They all remained in a diving posture, their wings suspended in the air, no longer vibrating.

It was as if someone had pressed a pause button.

The foremost locusts were less than three feet from the altar; one could even clearly see the human silhouettes reflected in their compound eyes.

A deathly silence fell over the world.

The Divine Lady stood upon the altar, her pale gold robes emitting a soft, holy light in the darkness, like the rising sun tearing through the shadows to illuminate all things.

Everyone’s gaze was firmly captured by her presence.

She looked at the locusts filling the sky, her tone indifferent yet carrying an unquestionable authority.

“Evil beast, reveal your true form!”

As soon as she spoke, black mist surged in from all directions.

The sound of locusts fluttering could be faintly heard within the mist.

When the black mist finally dissipated, the locusts that had filled the sky were gone. In the open space in front of the altar, a massive creature had appeared.

It was a peculiar being with the body of a rabbit, the beak of an eagle, and the tail of a snake.

Its back was covered in hard scales, and its eyes were a bloodthirsty red, filled with alertness.

Seeing this, Daoist Master Xuan He suddenly had an idea. He fell to his knees before the Qiuyu and began to wail his accusations.

“Lord Locust God, this witch disrupted the grand ritual this lowly one carefully prepared for you. She has absolutely no respect for you! Please, you must not let her go!”

The system’s mind was filled with question marks.

Didn't the host tell it to play a monster? Why was this guy calling it “Lord Locust God”? And who was the “witch” he was talking about?

Could it be that someone was trying to steal its spotlight?

To hell with it! It had practiced for days to get the monster act down. Now that its role was being hijacked, how was it supposed to perform?

Yun Shu looked at the bewildered system, contemplated for a moment, and then spoke: “Qiuyu, I did not know that a mere minor demon like you would dare to call yourself the Locust God in the mortal realm and have the people of Xindu offer living sacrifices to you.”

The system was even more confused.

Guys, seriously, can you believe this?

It felt like it had memorized the answers for an exam, only to open the test paper and find out the questions had been changed.

Hahaha, it’s fine, it’s fine.

Just as the system managed to calm itself and prepared to improvise its performance with Yun Shu...

The old Daoist who had called it the Locust God jumped out again, pointing at its host’s nose and shouting, “How dare you, witch! Stop talking nonsense! This is clearly the Lord Locust God!”