Chapter 46 The God of Heavenly Punishment first shifted his gaze.

The Fallen Moon Tower collapsed.

The white jade statue next to it has also completely collapsed.

The golden barrier protecting the sacrificed individuals had long since dissipated, and the imprisoned girls and boys scattered and fled.

The demons in Thousand Shadows City flocked to the streets, looking in terror toward the Nine-Story Pagoda. When they saw the Divine Lord standing in mid-air, they all widened their eyes in fear.

In the next instant, the god flicked his right hand, and golden light swept across.

Countless statues of all sizes in Thousand Shadows City were shattered by an invisible force, turning into sparks that melted into the heavens and earth.

Tens of thousands of portraits depicting the deity were burned to ashes by the fire that had no source, leaving not a trace.

One by one, the once-prosperous temples of deities were reduced to dust, which drifted into the air and was eventually scattered by a gust of wind.

Even some demons, like those in the temples of the gods, had their limbs turn into nothingness and eventually disappear without a trace.

Panic and screams filled the air: "Why is this happening?"

"The idol... my hand, my hand is gone..."

"It's divine punishment, this is divine punishment."

"My Lord, spare me! I offered you sacrifices..."

"What kind of bullshit god is he? Since he accepts sacrifices, why has he never protected us?"

"False god..."

A cacophony of voices rose and fell, until finally, the city was filled with people bowing their heads in fear and confession, and with shouts of curses in a panic.

Above Thousand Shadows City.

Hua Xun frowned as he listened to the faint sounds coming from below.

Until one of them forcefully slammed the forearm-sized statue into the ground, she raised her hand and used a wisp of magic to lift the statue up and take it into her own hands.

This is a statue of a deity cast in white porcelain, with exquisite craftsmanship and a smooth, lustrous appearance like ice and jade.

She carefully wiped away the ashes from the statue and looked at the deity beside her.

He seemed not to hear the pleas and insults, and stood there peacefully with a smile on his lips.

He even noticed her gaze, turned to look at her, and asked gently, "Hmm?"

Hua Xun pursed her lips tightly: "Why doesn't the Divine Lord tell those demons the truth?"

Those burned portraits, vanished statues of gods and temples were all places where "offerings" were once made.

They even used the guise of sacrifice to bully men and women, committing all sorts of absurd and cruel acts.

Those vanished demons all had blood on their hands.

The deity smiled and said, "They don't need anyone to tell them the truth."

Hua Xun was startled, then suddenly realized what was happening.

Do they not know what they have done?

No, they know better than anyone else.

However, they did not think that sacrificing living people was wrong.

That's why they would naturally say that since they offered sacrifices, they should be blessed.

“But they… humiliated you like that.” Hua Xun’s voice trailed off.

In her heart, the God was always sacred, and had never been insulted with such foul language.

Jiuqing paused slightly and turned to look at her.

The scene of divine punishment being hurled at the Fallen Moon Tower just now flooded back into my mind.

At that moment, he only saw the sharp blade about to pierce the girl's dantian and almost forgot about Luo He's earth soul.

"God Lord?" Hua Xun turned his head in confusion.

The deity came to his senses, lowered his eyes and replied softly: "Since all living beings respect and believe in me, they will also have resentment and insults."

Hua Xun knew that the God was right. If only praise was tolerated, how were they any different from those tyrannical rulers?

But she was still angry for the God.

However, Hua Xun's anger didn't last long before she was drawn to another matter: "Zhihua Pill!"

Hua Xun looked at his dantian, only to find that the golden bottle containing the Zhihua Pill had melted away and the Zhihua Pill had disappeared without a trace.

The deity smiled and said, "This pill was originally obtained by you personally, and its use by you is also a matter of cause and effect."

Hua Xun looked at the God, and then recalled Qian Zhichou's stubborn eyes and the words she had spoken.

He wanted to ask about Lord Luohe, but the words caught in his throat.

"Did the God Lord already know what Qian Zhichou was doing?" she asked in a muffled voice.

The deity nodded: "Yes."

"Then why didn't you stop it?" Hua Xun asked, puzzled.

The deity said, "This is her destiny."

Hua Xun still didn't understand.

"She saved more than 7,000 people in the city 10,000 years ago, and over the long years, she also sacrificed more than 7,000 of her descendants. Good and evil cancel each other out, and this year is the time of her death."

Hua Xun understood this time, and when he thought of Qian Zhichou's self-deprecating smile when she disappeared, all that remained was a sigh.

“This year is the year she is supposed to die,” Hua Xun thought of something else, “why did the Divine Lord still allow me to go and find the Zhihua Pill?”

When Qian Zhichou made the seven-day pact with her, the Divine Lord suppressed the Spirit Rhinoceros Gu for her, which undoubtedly allowed her to leave.

The deity laughed and said, "Staying in the Falling Moon Tower will only cause you to suffer more. Why not let you go out and gain experience for a few days?"

Hua Xun's eyes widened in shock: "You're training me?" Then, thinking of the amulet on her purse, she wondered, "Has your phantom always been by my side? Does that mean you've seen everything?"

The smile on the god's lips faded slightly, and his eyes showed a look of realization.

He remembered her looking like she was wearing a red dress.

The wedding dress was as red as fire, very bright and beautiful.

"God Lord?" Hua Xun, holding the statue, approached the God Lord.

As Jiuqing gazed at the girl so close to him, a strange feeling gradually grew in his heart.

Until dark clouds rolled in on the horizon, and lightning flashed through them.

The deity came to his senses and said calmly, "It's time to go back."

As soon as the words were spoken, a dazzling array of celestial light descended, enveloping the two of them.

*

White Mist Cliff remains exactly as it was when Hua Xun left.

Peach trees stretch out, their petals colorful, and a misty haze hangs in the air.

The flowers, nourished by the five-colored soil, shimmered with a hazy glow in the night.

Hua Xun sat at the jade table under the peach tree, one hand supporting her chin, the other gently idly playing with a petal that had fallen onto the table, lost in thought.

She would glance at the palace not far away every now and then, then look away again and sigh sullenly.

Since returning to White Mist Cliff, the Divine Lord has gone back to his palace, even covering it with protective divine light, and has not come out again.

A melodious long cry came from afar.

Hua Xun looked in the direction of the sound and saw a fiery red figure, like a raging flame, rushing straight towards her.

She quickly stood up, tore off her purse, and took out the pastries she had bought on her way back to Thousand Shadows City from Eternal Ashes City.

“I remember this very clearly!” Hua Xun smiled, her eyes narrowing.

The once lightning-fast Liu Huo suddenly stopped, blinked its round eyes, and happily went forward, pecked up a piece, and swallowed it.

Hua Xun watched it eat with relish, thought for a moment, and leaned closer: "Liu Huo."

Perhaps because he was in a good mood after receiving the pastries, Liu Huo unusually moved closer to her in a good mood.

"Do you know why the God Lord has locked himself in the palace?" Hua Xun glanced at the palace again.

Liu Huo followed her gaze, shook his head, and stared intently at the pastries beside Hua Xun.

Hua Xun sighed and pushed all the pastries in front of it: "Eat up, eat up."

Liu Huo's eyes lit up, and he began to eat heartily.

Hua Xun sat under the peach tree for another hour. As it grew late, he finally returned to his room.

But the image of the deity always kept appearing in his mind.

Amidst the guiding celestial light, the Divine Lord rarely spoke. Even after returning to White Mist Cliff, he only smiled and said, "Rest well," before transforming into golden light and flying into the palace.

It was no different from usual.

Just as I was lost in thought, the sky suddenly brightened.

Hua Xun suddenly opened her eyes wide.

The White Mist Cliff, which was originally shrouded in night, turned into daylight in an instant.

Then a flash of light appeared in the sky, and night and day alternated erratically, until finally day triumphed over night.

The darkness of White Mist Cliff was created by the divine power of the God-King. If the darkness suddenly disappeared...

Hua Xun panicked and leaped off the bed toward the palace ahead.

It wasn't until she entered the familiar temple that Hua Xun realized, to her surprise, that the protective divine light surrounding the palace had also disappeared.

The celestial canopy created by the divine lord's consciousness was also surging violently, appearing and disappearing intermittently.

Behind the fairy curtain...

Hua Xun froze in place.

On the high platform, the golden-red rootless heavenly fire raged and burned with a world-destroying force, devouring the god who sat alone on the lotus platform.

The fire did not originate from the outside, but burned continuously from within the body of the god.

Her white dress and black hair swirled and rolled.

Heavenly fire licked every inch of his skin, and his holy bones, like jade marrow burned in purgatory, emitted a terrifying fluorescent red glow.

God's flesh and blood also became the best fuel, cracking open as it burned, with flames like splashes of water gushing out from the cracks.

He was neither unconscious nor numb.

Hua Xun even saw the God-King's eyes, which were still slightly lowered, as if he were sitting on a high platform looking down on all living beings with a calm expression.

"My Lord..." Hua Xun realized that her voice was hoarse from tension the moment she opened her mouth.

The deity looked up at her, a calm smile still on his lips, and sighed, "Did I frighten you?"

Hua Xun shook her head vigorously and stepped forward: "How could this happen?" Her eyes suddenly reddened, "What happened to you? Aren't you a divine being? How could you be burned by fire..."

"It is divine punishment," the divine lord said gently.

“Divine punishment…” Hua Xun murmured, “But how could this be…”

She suddenly remembered something: "Is it because of those who performed the sacrifices?"

The deity smiled and did not deny it.

"But didn't you say that was Qian Zhichou's destiny?"

"Besides, this isn't your fault..."

“I am acting out of necessity,” the deity said softly, “and this is also my destiny.”

It was also his destiny.

Hua Xun quieted down and stared blankly at the god being burned by heavenly fire before her.

A tear welled up in my eye without me even realizing it.

The deity on the high platform looked down at the girl who was looking up, and paused for a moment when he saw that tear.

A wisp of golden divine light, no longer as bright as before, quietly emerged from the raging flames, like the finger of a god, gently brushing across the girl's eye and catching a single tear.

When the divine light returned to the flames, the surging heavenly fire weakened for the first time in tens of thousands of years.

The deity was stunned. He used the slightest bit of his divine power to gather immortal mist, and the bright white mist cliff turned into night once again.

"Go back and get some rest," he said gently.

Hua Xun glanced at the darkening sky and stubbornly shook her head: "I'll stay with you."

The deity paused for a moment, then did not insist further: "Then Ah Xun, please keep me company and talk for a while."

"What does the Divine Lord want to hear?" Hua Xun asked earnestly, then added, "I like it when the Divine Lord calls me 'A-Xun'."

The deity laughed amidst the blazing fire: "Ah Xun, tell me about your experiences over the past ninety years."

Hua Xun tilted her head back and said as she recalled, "I was born in a forest called Cuiling Mountain. I had no parents, no friends, and no name."

"Later, I developed intelligence and wanted to give myself a name."

"There was a very beautiful kingfisher, all colorful, that always mocked me, saying I was dull and unpleasant to look at..."

The deity said slowly, "The kingfisher is speaking nonsense."

Hua Xun smiled because of the God's protection, but pursed her lips when she saw the flames, and continued, "I used to envy those colorful things, so I gave myself the surname Hua."

"After naming myself, I celebrated quite a bit, picked a lot of wild fruits, and ate them all while sitting on a branch..."

The girl's voice was soft and gentle, like the soothing sound of a zither.

The deity listened quietly and attentively, and the pain of being burned seemed to be gradually lessening.

"Are you feeling any better?" The girl stopped talking at some point and asked in a low voice.

The deity withdrew from her gentle, eloquent tone and nodded, saying, "Much better."

Hua Xun looked at the still burning fire within him, pressed her lips together, and asked anxiously, "Will the Divine Lord's divine punishment last a long time?"

The deity smiled and shook his head: "It will stop once the karma I bear this time has been burned away."

Hua Xun suddenly fell silent.

"What?" the deity asked in return.

Hua Xun's eyelashes trembled slightly: "Are all the living beings that have been harmed because of their faith in the God-King the cause and effect that the God-King must bear?"

The deity did not respond this time.

Hua Xun seemed to have no need for his response.

She looked at the god who was still smiling as he burned, and remembered a time when he was in a daze. When she walked to his side, she heard the prayers of all living beings resounding in her mind, which caused her to have a splitting headache.

"Does the deity feel pain when he is punished by heaven or when he hears prayers?"

The divine lord's gaze gradually settled.

No one had ever asked him that question.

He looked at the weary-looking girl below the platform: "I remember you once brought back a white porcelain statue."

Hua Xun nodded, and she brought the statue she had "saved" from Thousand Shadows City back to White Mist Cliff.

The deity smiled and said, "Why don't you go ask it?"

Hua Xun was stunned: "Will the statue answer?"

"Give it a try."

Hua Xun hesitated for a moment, then slowly walked out.

The deity gazed at the empty palace, momentarily lost in thought, before finally raising his hand to set up the barrier once more.

The moment he touched the cloth, he heard a girl's devout voice echo in his mind: "Will the God feel pain?"

The deity lowered his eyes and remained silent.

Meanwhile, in the palace not far away.

Hua Xun continued to stare intently at the statue on the table, quietly awaiting the god's response.

After an unknown amount of time, she heard a voice from her mind: "Every moment."

*

The divine punishment imposed by the God Lord Jiuqing lasted for three days and three nights.

Hua Xun did not come again in the past three days.

Only when the heavenly fire dissipated did he fly down from the high platform and walk towards the palace gate.

But after walking outside the door, he stopped in his tracks.

The young girl sat on the jade steps in front of the palace, holding a pastry in her hand, listlessly teasing the greedy Liu Huo.

The person and the bird got along exceptionally well.

Liu Huo was the first to notice the surge of divine power, looked up at him, and let out a low "Cheep".

Hua Xun turned her head and her dim eyes lit up the moment she saw him.

"My Lord, you have emerged!"

Jiuqing stared at those eyebrows and eyes.

Clouds roll and unroll, the wind stops and starts again.

God looked away first.