Chapter 532: Pilgrimage

Zhang Lie truly hadn't expected such an outcome.

He had displayed his strength, been venerated as a deity, and forced onto a golden throne dripping with overstated opulence. He had no choice. If they refused to listen to his explanations, then he... would accept his new role as guardian deity.

It took a serious bout of questioning before Zhang Lie obtained the answers he was looking for.

These alien half-beastmen, whose faces were painted with white streaks and who had rather imposing statures, used to be a very weak race in the second realm. They called themselves the Baimei.

Their ancestors were subordinate to another race, but when they were killed in a war, the Baimei were cast adrift. They roamed the second realm before finally settling in this mountain protected by their guardian deity.

There were some benefits to being weak: the guardian deity was a peak-grade lifeform, and it wasn't interested in the Baimei at all. Furthermore, the entire mountain was enveloped in his peak-grade aura, dissuading any genetic lifeforms from drawing near. As a result, the Baimei found sanctuary here.

The Baimei slowly grew stronger as their environment became more and more favorable to their growth. They hunted nearby and tithed the best part of their hunt to their guardian deity.

The peak-grade lifeform was intelligent enough to accept this agreement. It lazed around the top of the mountain and allowed this arrangement to persist on account of the free food it was receiving.

As the years went by, the Baimei grew stronger and stronger, until they were developing fighters on the level of sura kings. However, they were largely unaware of their newfound strength. When they found themselves bested by Zhang Lie, who was even stronger than their previous guardian deity, they naturally submitted once again.

Zhang Lie rather liked this race, because they would remain loyal as long as he was stronger than any of them.

The priest gathered all the Baimei and shouted, "Today, our guardian deity has cast off his old form for a new one. Let us rejoice!"

In order to win the favor of their guardian deity, the Baimei spared no expense. They had feted Zhang Lie immediately. All sorts of specially prepared meat filled a gigantic table, and Zhang Lie even noticed the meat of peak-grade lifeforms among them.

Two Baimei women, their clothing half-exposed, sat on either side of him, carefully pouring him wine and feeding him small pieces of meat.

Zhang Lie shuddered and dismissed them. He asked the priest, "Do you know if there are any strong lifeforms nearby? Stronger than your previous guardian deity."

"No stronger lifeform could reside in the regions surrounding this mountain. Our guardian deity is the strongest of all," the priest replied definitively.

Zhang Lie clutched his face, certain he was asking these questions to the wrong target.

The priest began to pray. "The guardian deity will shield us from the invasion of genetic lifeforms, the pain of illness and disease, and protect us and ours."

"Oh, guardian deity!" The Baimei lay prostrate on the ground as they kowtowed.

"The guardian deity will protect the weak. He will grant us fortitude, mental sanity, strength of the body, our lifeforce, the light and heat we sense," the priest continued reciting.

Zhang Lie winced. In some sense, this was a mass brainwashing of the entire tribe. By repeatedly hosting such sermons and ingraining these words in the tribe, the Baimei would instinctively fear and venerate the strong

𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Zhang Lie didn't have time to allow them to idolize him, and he certainly wasn't a god or deity of any sort. Nor was he willing to provide for them and shield them from harm, or all that nonsense. He had to keep searching for more disaster gene fragments.

The only reason he had stayed was to try to get more information out of the Baimei.

Zhang Lie raised his hands. "Stop, stop, all of you!"

The priest turned and asked, "Have we done anything to dissatisfy you, guardian deity?"

Zhang Lie responded directly, "I have my own affairs to deal with, and I can't stay here forever. I come from a settlement called Renhuang. If you're interested in seeing the world at large, head there—I don't have time to play with you anymore."

Zhang Lie activated a soulshard, sprouted a pair of black wings from his back, then flew up into the air.

The stunned Baimei didn't react until Zhang Lie was long gone.

"You can't leave us behind, guardian deity! Without you, we can't survive!"

"Guardian deity, you can't give up on us, and we can't go on without you!"

"Without the guardian deity's light to guide our path, how will we make our way in this world of darkness?"

Zhang Lie looked down at the Baimei from his vantage point high above. "You all already have the strength to eke out a living in the sura realm, and you don't need any deity at all."

The Baimei weren't weak. The only reason Zhang Lie could dominate them so easily was because he was too strong.

After generations of stable growth, the Baimei had quite a few promising fighters who were almost on par with sura kings, and they would be a force to be reckoned against anyone but the sura and Renhuang.

They might not be the strongest in the realm, but they certainly weren't weak. Much of their hunting even focused on bringing down peak-grade lifeforms.

The priest hurriedly asked, "Is there anything that dissatisfies you, guardian deity? Please, tell us outright—we'll do anything for you to stay!"

The Baimei all fell to the ground prostrate in despair. "Please, don't desert us! Without a deity, how will we live on?"

"Rely on yourselves!" With a beat of his wings, Zhang Lie vanished from sight. A map slowly drifted down toward them.

The Baimei were silent where they stood. What were they to do? Their deity had left them behind!"

One of the Baimei murmured, "Our god is gone..."

Some of the Baimei clutched their heads in pain as they ululated. "What have we done? Why would our god desert us?!"

Some were in such despair that they tried to commit suicide.

"No! This is a trial handed to us by the deity himself!" the priest shouted.

He picked up the map that had drifted down toward the ground. This was a copy of the map that they had found in the sura king's treasury, and it marked Renhuang's location.

The priest continued seriously, "Before our deity left, he told us to embark on a pilgrimage."

"A pilgrimage?"

The priest spread his arms wide. "He left us behind to return to the skies, but before he did so, he provided us with a trial, one to determine the worthy who would be able to accompany him there. We need to leave this safe haven and head into the wilderness of the second realm. We need to head toward Renhuang!"