Worldwide Awakening: My Soul Kinds Are Lost-Chapter 502: Six Hundred Years Pass in a Flash, Demon Gods Rule_1
The Great Heng Country had thrived for six hundred years, experiencing countless trials and tribulations since the reign of its Founding Emperor Yuan Lin. However, it had now entered a state of decadence.
"The South Sky Demon God has ascended to the Heavenly God Realm and demands three thousand pairs of young boys and girls annually."
"The North River Demon God has entered the True God Realm and demands ten thousand pairs of loving couples annually."
"Three new Demon Gods have emerged in the West and have already established considerable influence."
Such memorials, like snowflakes, scattered across the Great Heng Emperor’s table, leaving his head spinning. He had ascended the throne just three days ago, only to discover widespread chaos caused by Demon Gods across the land.
At this point, he couldn’t help but resent the former Heng Shizong, questioning his decision to support these Demon Gods while suppressing the Dai Temple. Today, with the decline of the Dai Temple and the Holy Emperor, once-abundant Dai Temples had been dismantled, leaving only a few scattered remnants. Even the Mount Tai Ancestral Court was in decline.
These Demon Gods, upon gaining power, were unlike the Dai Temple, which only sought incense offerings from the mortal realm; they, however, wanted to devour humans. If their demands were not met, turbulent disasters were sure to follow.
The reason behind supporting the Demon Gods while suppressing the Dai Temple was simple: it was all about power.
Although the Founding Emperor had received the Holy Emperor’s assistance and was a Class A devout believer, his descendants were not necessarily followers of the Holy Emperor. By the time Taizong ascended the throne, he only attained the faith level of a Class B believer. Later, this faith level fell to Class C. In just three generations, significant dissatisfaction towards the Dai Temple and the Holy Emperor had already arisen due to their immense influence.
During the later reign of Emperor Shizong, he conceived a plan of pitting one power against another. First, he stripped the Holy Emperor of his title, Dongyue Tianqi Emperor of Life and Benevolence, and demoted him to Lord of Mount Tai, thereby reducing his status from an emperor to a mere prefect magistrate. This decision naturally caused a great upheaval. However, through Shizong’s imperial machinations and by making offerings to the Demon Gods, all dissatisfaction was quickly suppressed. Consequently, the Dai Temple’s prestige and power declined drastically, setting it on a path to ruin.
Regrettably, after Heng Shizong’s death, the next Heng Emperor lacked such methods. Coupled with the severe suppression of the Dai Temple, which led to its further decline, the Demon Gods grew powerful. Nowadays, the true rulers in various regions were no longer the local officials of the Court, but the Demon Gods and the Temple Masters of the Demon God Temples. Some powerful Demon Gods even dared to directly demand human sacrifices from the Court as tribute, plunging the era into extreme darkness.
The recent Heng Emperors had attempted to elevate the Dai Temple and suppress the Demon Gods in various regions. But by then, the Dai Temple had already declined so significantly that their plans to support it failed, especially with various Demon Gods obstructing their every move. For the sake of his own power, Heng Shizong had brought calamity upon his descendants and untold suffering upon the common people.
"Your Majesty, we must not give in! If we concede today, these Demon Gods will demand even more tomorrow," the Grand Secretary warned, his expression grim. What kind of life was this? They were living like livestock reared by those Demon Gods. Whenever the Demon Gods wished to consume a few humans, they had to provide them.
"Does the minister have a solution?" the Heng Emperor inquired. Refusal was an option, but then one would have to deal with the ensuing wrath of the Demon Gods. He also wished to have some backbone, but he knew that backbone wouldn’t stop the Demon Gods from committing atrocities. The Great Heng could refuse, but the Demon Gods would simply take what they wanted. When that happened, they wouldn’t even be left with the slightest shred of dignity.
Upon hearing this, a look of helplessness crossed the Grand Secretary’s face. Indeed, he had no solution. Finally, gritting his teeth, he said, "We could seek help from the Mount Tai Temple!"
"The Lord of Mount Tai hasn’t manifested any miracles for many years and has long been in decline," the Heng Emperor shook his head. He had never even considered supporting it. The previous Emperor had contemplated restoring the Lord of Mount Tai’s title of Dongyue Tianqi Emperor of Life and Benevolence as a means of support. Unfortunately, the court officials disagreed, and the Demon Gods further used the common people as hostages to threaten them. Clearly, everyone knew just how terrifying the Dongyue Tianqi Emperor of Life and Benevolence could be, even if they had only read about him in records and never seen him. The Heng Grand Emperor, with the Holy Emperor’s aid, had swept across the world to establish the Great Heng. No one, neither human nor god, wanted to suffer the same fate as the previous dynasty, which had been utterly destroyed. Thus, even though the Dai Temple had declined and the Dongyue Tianqi Emperor of Life and Benevolence had been demoted to Lord of Mount Tai, both humans and gods kept a close watch on them, lest the power of Great Heng return to the Emperor’s hands.
"Your Majesty, perhaps it’s not that he hasn’t manifested, but rather that no one has been able to meet the conditions," the Grand Secretary offered. A Class B Believer was the minimum requirement to receive the Holy Emperor’s blessings. In this era, perhaps only the Temple Masters within the Dai Temple could meet this condition.
"You want me to worship the Lord of Mount Tai?" Hearing this, the Heng Emperor scoffed. "Nonsense! I am the sovereign of a nation; how could I possibly submit to another?" He wouldn’t even submit to those powerful Demon Gods, so why would he worship a fallen prefect magistrate? Did he really think he had lost to the point of no return? Besides, if he were to worship someone, he should choose a reliable patron, not a minor prefect magistrate who had been in decline for years. No matter how powerful he had been in the past, hadn’t he still fallen to the point where his temple was deserted?
Hearing this, the Grand Secretary sighed inwardly. It’s true what they say: when a nation is about to fall, omens appear. This new emperor, just recently enthroned, is inferior to his predecessors in both ability and vision. The previous emperors knew full well this was all Heng Shizong’s doing. He had become unscrupulously power-mad, leaving his descendants to clean up the mess. However, they simply couldn’t contend with the powerful Demon Gods, so their only choice was to support the original state religion, the faith system of the Dai Temple. The Dai Temple did not seek to usurp power, nor did it demand human sacrifices, nor would it embarrass the emperor. If not for its immense reputation among the populace, it wouldn’t have incurred Heng Shizong’s jealousy and persecution.
The current Heng Emperor was quite adept at internal struggles—otherwise, how could he have ascended to the throne? However, when it came to external conflicts, he was utterly clueless. Submit to another? Back then, Heng Grand Emperor was a Class A devout believer of the Holy Emperor, and later Taizong was a Class B believer. How is it not acceptable now that it’s your turn?
He probably just looks down on the Lord of Mount Tai.
"Your Majesty speaks wisely. How could a supreme ruler like yourself believe in gods? The nation must always come first," the Grand Secretary said, subtly warning him. The implication was that if he wouldn’t trust the Lord of Mount Tai, he shouldn’t trust other Demon Gods either, otherwise, the realm would fall into chaos.
Hearing this, the Heng Emperor’s eyes flickered. He was, naturally, thinking of worshipping a powerful Demon God, using the nation’s resources as tribute to secure his throne and reputation. He wanted to emulate Heng Shizong’s methods. Heng Shizong’s method was to use minor cults to besiege a major one; that is, he used the worship of numerous Demon Gods, whose faiths were far inferior to that of the Dai Temple, to forcefully crush the Dai Temple into decline, thereby elevating the prestige of imperial power to its zenith. But he was different. He planned to use a major cult to suppress the minor ones. He would choose the most powerful Demon God to worship and offer tribute to, then have this dominant Demon God control the weaker ones. By leveraging the faith in Demon Gods, he would restore imperial authority.
As for the possibility that he might be controlled and turned into a puppet by this powerful Demon God, he hadn’t considered it at all. He had managed to fight his way through numerous brothers and sisters to become emperor; how could he possibly end up in such a pathetic state?
With his schemes and strategies, could he not handle a Demon God?
"The Grand Secretary speaks with utmost reason. How could I, your Emperor, entertain such thoughts of worshipping gods?" the Heng Emperor said dismissively, while inwardly plotting how to remove this old obstacle from his path.
No, not just the Grand Secretary. All the officials left by the previous Emperor must be purged and replaced with a new group.
What? These people are all from the rare Human Faction, not the Demon God Faction? The Heng Emperor currently needed the Demon God Faction. Only then could he better utilize Demon Gods to subdue other Demon Gods, ultimately bringing them all under his control.
The Heng Emperor remained oblivious to his own incompetence. The previous Emperor and his ministers had shouldered all the pressure. His own "accomplishment" had merely been to claw his way to the throne from the deadly crucible of sibling rivalry; he had never personally witnessed the cruelty of the Demon Gods. The memorials did indeed state that Demon Gods were demanding human sacrifices from him. However, he had never witnessed such things firsthand. To him, these people were merely a string of numbers and words, completely devoid of any real meaning. So, he approved them all without a second thought.
"Dismissed. I am tired." The Heng Emperor casually approved all requests for human sacrifices, then tossed the memorials to the Grand Secretary, his meaning clear: Get out.
Seeing this, the Grand Secretary felt an intense sense of suffocation. When the previous Emperor was on the throne, every memorial involving human sacrifices was deliberated upon repeatedly. Intelligence was meticulously collected, and the vast majority of such requests were denied. Only when resistance was truly impossible would they be reluctantly approved. Yet this new Emperor approved them all without even a glance.
He desperately wanted to speak out, but seeing the impatient look on the Heng Emperor’s face, a wave of desolation washed over his heart. How could such a person become emperor?
