Secular world: My destiny has no taboos

Chapter 574-584: Incense Offering Soldiers

"Squeak..."

The door, which had been only slightly ajar, suddenly emitted a hoarse sound as the gap widened and gradually opened.

At that moment, everyone saw what was behind the door.

It was a world in chaos, where the land was barren, with exposed red rocks, desolate planets suspended in the sky, and strange, writhing spheres of flesh extending bloody tentacles to connect heaven and earth.

"What kind of place is that?!"

Upon seeing this scene, everyone couldn't help but have the same thought.

Before they could react, a thick, muscular arm suddenly grabbed the door frame, and a face peeked out from behind the door.

According to the aesthetic standards of the Xuan Kingdom, this face is extremely ugly.

Its face is wolf-shaped, with an arched nose and sharp fangs protruding from the corners of its mouth, covering almost half of its face. At the center of its skull between its eyebrows, there is a fleshy growth that looks like a shield, with the growth concave and its two wings like outstretched wings.

Beneath that face lies an even more horrifying and grotesque body.

From a purely kinetic standpoint, this body could definitely outrun 90% of land animals.

"Seal the remains!"

The middle-aged officer took a deep breath and extended his right hand, making a slow fist gesture.

"Giggle cluck..."

Jionghai stared at everyone in the arena, making a sound like pebbles clashing in his throat, and walked out from behind the door without fear.

The first one, the second one...

Gradually, the size of the door no longer limited the number of skeletons, and the surroundings became illusory. One by one, the skeletons stepped out of the door and rushed towards the soldiers who had erected the defensive line.

"Fire!!"

The middle-aged officer clenched his fist tightly, and the muzzles of the guns already loaded by his soldiers spat out countless sparks. Brilliant fire snakes leaped over the crowd and rushed toward the surging corpses.

"Puff puff puff puff..."

Countless bullets rained down, piercing the bodies of the wrecked creatures, but these only slightly hindered their progress; they did not fall.

Upon seeing the dense rain of bullets, the tumor on Jionghai's forehead opened, and strands of energy gathered into a shield, blocking all the bullets.

They are not without intelligence, but they know how to use force to block oncoming attacks.

As the wreckage drew ever closer, the middle-aged officer remained calm. With a command, a series of deafening roars erupted from the rear of the army—the sound of rocket artillery firing.

Since the wreckage appeared within the border area, the artillery vehicles could not enter, so the official response was to use a less powerful cannon.

However, this is sufficient for the current situation.

The middle-aged officer had commanded two missions to intercept the Jiongboshi. With the support of the Academy of Science and Education, he knew the Jiongboshi inside and out and knew how much firepower was needed to suppress it.

"Let's use regular firepower to weaken these skeletons for now. Once they get closer, we'll immediately switch to the incense-burning soldiers," the middle-aged officer thought to himself.

Early in the preparation stage, instructions were given to those below, so everyone knew what they were supposed to do at each stage.

Under intense firepower, the skeletons were unable to run. Although their bodies were tough and they had energy to protect them from bullets, the impact of bullets and artillery fire was still not to be underestimated.

However, before the skeletons in front could be killed, new skeletons kept pouring out from behind the door.

Over time, the remains formed a trend like ocean tides.

"Can't wait any longer!"

The middle-aged officer stared ahead, took a deep breath, and then saw rows of single-barreled cannons that looked like they appeared in the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty.

The cannons were engraved with ancient Xuan Kingdom characters, which emitted a red glow, as if they were transmitting the power of the entire civilization to the front.

"Boom boom boom..."

A series of flames shot into the sky, and the red-light cannonballs, trailing long fiery tails, crashed into the group of skeletons. Upon contact, they did not explode, but instead transformed into countless crimson characters that burrowed into the flesh of the skeletons like maggots clinging to bones.

The skeleton, entangled in runes, emitted white smoke as if scalded by hot water, its hard skin rotting at a visible rate.

At the very center of the barrage, the tumor on Jionghai's forehead shattered with a 'crack,' the energy shield in front of him burst like a soap bubble, and his entire body melted into a pool of foul-smelling liquid in the red light.

"This is the power of the Xuan Kingdom's incense offerings!?"

Not far from the battlefield, Lin Beixuan and the Old Immortal of the South Pole watched the changes in the center of the battlefield, where large swathes of corpses began to be destroyed.

"The government has established incense shrines in every city to gather the faith of the people. Their approach is different from ours; it is not about making the public believe in a particular god or deity."

"Instead...let them believe in their own country."

The old immortal of Antarctica looked solemn.

"By treating the nation as a deity and absorbing the incense offerings of countless families, we can not only resist the invasion of foreign forces in times of crisis, but also give back to the masses. We can use the divine power of the incense offerings gathered by the nation to nourish the people's bodies and spirits, and improve the overall quality of the nation. It can be said that its uses are infinite!"

"The fact that this plan has now been implemented owes much to the suggestions made by the government troops."

The Old Immortal of the South Pole looked at Lin Beixuan with admiration in his eyes.

The original meaning of the Divine Fire Cluster Viewing Method is to gather the power of many fires to create a temple together. This temple can be anything, without being restricted to any particular form.

Based on this, the government, with the nation at its core, unites the people in their spirit of ancestor worship. This is not only a practical and formal concept, but also something that resides in the hearts of the people.

The Old Immortal of the South Pole said excitedly, "As long as people have faith in their motherland, they can contribute to the nation's prosperity. But how many people in Xuan Kingdom today do not have faith in their own country?"

"Moreover, this is the purest incense power, wishing for the prosperity of the motherland and the strength of the nation. It is not for personal gain, but for the benefit of the entire country."

"I have never seen such rich and pure incense power even in any mortal deity."

The Old Immortal of the South Pole lived in the last century. He experienced the wars that plagued the country, so people back then were more patriotic than they are now and knew how hard-won our good life is. Therefore, even he contributed his own share to the nation.

He watched as a wisp of incense energy drifted from him into the incense shrine in the city center.

At that moment, the Old Immortal of Antarctica must have felt incredibly conflicted.

He felt like a child seeing his motherland truly standing before him.

It is no longer something ethereal and unreal, no longer the image imagined in one's mind.

"This is the true god! He regards the nation and its people as his deities, and everyone is a child of the god."

As Lin Beixuan listened to the old immortal of the South Pole's sighs, he felt the same indescribable emotions as the old immortal.

Watching the incense offerings they provided fall into the skeletal remains, exploding into dazzling red light, and seeing those strings of bone-corroding characters—the essence of the Xuan Kingdom's millennia-long heritage—it seemed that even a great mortal god or mortal lord would be corrupted by the power of these characters. "Lord, you must have already considered this, right?" Suddenly, the Antarctic Immortal asked.

Lin Beixuan didn't speak, but simply nodded slightly.

"As expected!" The Old Immortal of the South Pole sighed.

"Since you can think of the path of the Divine Fire Cluster, how could you not think of the idea of ​​taking the nation and its people as gods, and the people's livelihood as the Divine Fire?"

"Now that the nation has this trump card, even if someone possesses the power of a mortal master in the secular world, they probably cannot defeat the combined power of the nation's incense offerings."

“Your actions actually go against the interests of us ordinary people, putting us under a check and balance.”

Lin Beixuan's eyes flickered slightly, and he said in a somewhat indifferent tone, "There are more and more secular princes. After becoming secularized, they have caused so much trouble in the real world. They should have been restrained long ago."

I remember when Lin Beixuan first entered the mortal world, he saw the authorities arresting secular youths who had become too worldly. At that time, there were already many cases of secular youths who had become too worldly and causing harm to others. Now, these cases are probably increasing.

The method of gathering divine fire embodies the faith and wishes of countless people. Besides being used to fight enemies and strengthen the body, it has many other wonderful uses that can be explored.

For example, divine lightning can be used to kill evildoers, and the power of incense can be used to lock onto a target and instantly teleport them to another part of the city, greatly saving rescue time.

Lin Beixuan had thought of these things when he first conceived of the Divine Fire Cluster project. He believed that the experts and scholars at the Academy of Science and Education, whose minds were full of intelligence, had probably already experimented with and applied it, and it would only take time to promote it nationwide.

"I hope the world in the future will be just as we all dream of!"

Lin Beixuan's words floated out softly, seemingly carrying his wishes, and once again transformed into a wisp of incense power, rising into the sky.

The Old Immortal of the South Pole turned around in surprise, opened his mouth as if to say something, but in the end, the corners of his mouth curled up, turning into an expectant echo.

On the battlefield, the wreckage resembled a black tide, leaping out of the door and roaring as it rushed outwards.

As they rushed out the door, they also brought with them some things from the world behind the door.

Clumps of foul odor were blown across the area by the wind they stirred up as they ran.

Gradually, the land around the door began to become as desolate as the world behind it, spreading out eerily.

However, as a shell emitting a red glow fell, strings of text scattered, stirring up gusts of red wind, which actually suppressed these foul odors back.

However, no one saw this scene, not even Lin Beixuan noticed it.

"efficient!"

The middle-aged officer slowly loosened his clenched fist, and the white marks on his knuckles from excessive force gradually faded. The soldiers around him also showed signs of excitement.

After all, this batch of incense-burning soldiers launched by the Academy of Science and Education was the first time they had used them, and they didn't know how much damage they could cause to the corpse.

However, judging from the current situation, the results seem to be very good.

However, the excitement of the crowd did not last long. The world behind the door suddenly surged violently, the space abruptly distorted, and the blood-red tentacles that connected heaven and earth suddenly tightened, as if being pulled by an invisible hand, dragging them toward the door.

Even more terrifying, a pair of enormous golden vertical pupils emerged from the depths of chaos, their pupils swirling with energy fluctuations of the same origin as those on Jionghai's body.

"What is that?" The middle-aged officer's eyes narrowed sharply upon seeing it, and he couldn't help but exclaim.

Lin Beixuan and the Old Immortal of the South Pole, who were watching the battle from the sidelines, also frowned, and an ominous premonition rose in their hearts.

As a continuous flow of energy emanated from behind the door, a monster twice the size of an ordinary skeleton distorted the door and emerged from behind it.

Its fleshy growths were not located between its eyebrows, but rather encircled its entire head like a crown. Each growth was engraved with twisted patterns, and when it took a step, energy from the world behind the door roared out like a storm.

"This is another form of remains!"

The middle-aged officer took a deep breath. Before this, Xuan Kingdom had experienced two attacks from the skeletons behind the gate, but neither time had a skeleton of this appearance appeared.

However, the Academy of Science and Education had predicted that there should be even more powerful, other forms of the Zerg-like skeletons appearing behind the door.

Because the shape of the door foreshadowed this.

Lin Beixuan could immediately discern the strength of the skeleton that had appeared.

"A mortal god!"

This is a mortal god-level relic, far superior to the divine-level relic below. It's like the vast difference between humans and gods in the mortal world.

Sure enough, as soon as this skeleton appeared, the huge tumor on its forehead suddenly lit up, and a power resembling the domain of a mortal god's altar spread out from its feet.

Buzzing...

In an instant, the wounds of the skeletons, which had been festering under the red light of the cannons, healed at an astonishing speed. Some of the skeletons even grew in size, roaring to the sky like werewolves and emitting terrifying sound waves.

"Change to armor-piercing rounds, Taoist priests prepare for the second salvo!" The middle-aged officer's voice trembled almost imperceptibly.

The skeleton before him was putting him under unprecedented pressure, and he was worried about whether the incense-burning soldiers could cause any harm to it.

"Bang bang bang..."

A dense barrage of cannon fire poured out once more, and the rich power of incense seemed to converge in the air into a giant red dragon, rushing towards the mortal god-level corpse.

The wreckage seemed to know the extraordinary nature of these cannons. Instead of taking the hits head-on, it deployed its domain, creating a violent, foul wind to block the cannonballs.

However, the armor-piercing projectiles emitting a red glow are not easily blocked by the wind. The power of modern firearms is fully demonstrated at this moment, far surpassing that of ancient catapults.

Despite the strong impact, the impact still landed in the wreckage despite the wind, causing numerous casualties among the wreckage.

The mortal god-level skeleton was also hit by several shells, and ancient characters immediately spread out, like chains wrapped around the skeleton's body.

"Sizzle sizzle~~"

White smoke billowed from the corpse's body, which was being burned and corroded, making it not much different from ordinary corpses.

However, this skeleton possessed even greater resistance. Although it was hit by several cannonballs and the power of incense spread throughout its body, it still did not melt into thick liquid.

With a roar, rings of light appeared beneath its feet, and the speed of the other skeletons suddenly increased dramatically, almost turning into afterimages as they rushed towards the army.

The soldiers in the front row could already see the bloodstains on their fangs, as well as the stench of rust and decay.

Lin Beixuan frowned, pondering whether to make a move. He glanced at the official faction of immortals not far away and noticed that although they looked tense, they still had no intention of making a move. So he immediately pulled back the Antarctic Immortal who was about to lose his temper.

"Look!"

Following Lin Beixuan's gaze, the Old Immortal of the South Pole saw the soldiers quickly switch their guns from behind and hold them in their hands.

The gun resembled a rifle from the War of Resistance against Japan, with a bayonet attached to the muzzle. However, with a volley of fire, the dense rain of bullets instantly shattered the nearest wreckage. The Old Immortal of the South Pole then realized that the present world was not like the mundane world where people only knew how to use swords and knives; firearms were the true weapon.

(End of this chapter)