A man among dragons, building a mysterious ancient church.

Chapter 126 You are blaspheming!
Worship the Heavenly Venerable?
The three members of the Zhou family had different expressions, but they remained hidden and could not see each other.

Zhou Minlan's eyes darted around, as if she had thought of a good idea to test the Old Days Cult: "Brother Xia, you talk so much, but have you ever been blessed by the Heavenly Venerable?"

"Are there any specific examples? For instance, finding money on the street after worshipping the Heavenly Venerable, or even more extravagantly, winning the lottery?"

Zhou Qi remained silent, quietly observing the details of Xia Zhenghong's expression. Zhou Minyan quietly touched Zhou Minlan's body, signaling her to be mindful of her actions and not go too far.

"Hahaha." Xia Zhenghong was amused by Zhou Minlan's analogy: "That's too much of an easy way to get something for nothing, and it doesn't conform to the doctrines of our old religion."

"The benevolent and great Heavenly Venerable will at most protect us and keep us safe and sound."

"You are still young and may not understand that true peace and safety are the most important things; everything else is just an illusion."

These are Xia Zhenghong's most sincere thoughts after experiencing the Black Dragon crisis. Only when one is on the verge of death can one truly understand that living is the most important thing.

Even if one is as rich as a country and wields immense power, death will mean losing everything.

Zhou Minlan knew Xia Zhenghong would say that, since this was information Zhou Qi had just given her, so she continued to guide him: "So, the Celestial Venerable really did manifest his power? And protect Brother Xia?"

“Of course.” When talking about this, Xia Zhenghong’s face still flushed red: “You might not believe it if I told you.”

"Three weeks ago, a vicious dragon attacked the town. If it weren't for the protection of the Heavenly Venerable, Xiajiawan would probably be a ruin by now."

"Afterwards, we found the Celestial Venerable and prayed to fulfill our vows, and the Celestial Venerable showed us his power."

"In short, it won't do you any harm to come and offer your prayers; we won't charge you anything."

After all that was said, Xia Zhenghong had clearly misunderstood, thinking that the three young people were worried about being scammed out of money.

"Okay, then let's pay our respects~" No one could see that, while invisible, Zhou Minlan revealed a mischievous smile on her face.

Manipulating the mandala, three illusions stepped forward, their hands clasped together in front of their hearts, worshipping the mysterious symbols.

In the next instant, the mysterious symbol burst forth with magnificent light, and a large ball of seven-colored radiance floated out from the symbol and hovered in mid-air.

"Heavenly Venerable One!" Xia Zhenghong reacted the fastest and most forcefully, so much so that he couldn't hold onto the incense and candles in his hands, which fell to the ground. He hurriedly tried to bow his head in respect.

"!" Zhou Minyan tried his best to keep quiet and turned to glare at Zhou Minlan. He was very sure that this was Zhou Minlan's doing with the datura!

"?" Zhou Qi was the most bewildered. He believed it to be true and was now eager to retreat. Damn it, would the old sect really do this? Are there really gods?

The sudden appearance of the seven-colored ball of light caused the four people to react differently, but Xia Zhenghong eventually realized something was wrong and quickly raised his head, which was about to be lowered.

Where did the gray fog go, which always spread whenever the Celestial Venerable manifested?
Could it be that there's something wrong with these three young people?!

Realizing something was wrong, Xia Zhenghong's previously flustered yet slightly joyful expression suddenly turned gloomy.

"What did you do?!"

Zhou Minlan feigned fear in a high-pitched voice: "Ah? Isn't this... the Celestial Venerable? We... didn't do anything?"

Xia Zhenghong glared fiercely at the three of them and waited deliberately for a while. Sure enough, the seven-colored ball of light remained motionless. He roughly realized that this was not the Celestial Venerable at all!
He was certain that these three were behind it!

Pointing angrily at the three illusory figures, he shouted: "Blasphemy! Blasphemy! How dare you! How dare you blaspheme God!"

"Do they really think we, the old sect, are all liars and have never seen the majestic true form of the Celestial Venerable?!"

Enraged, Xia Zhenghong disregarded manners and pointed at the three illusions, hurling insults.

Zhou Minlan's true form remained hidden to the side, distracted by manipulating the mandala. She maintained the seven-colored light cluster while meticulously manipulating the illusion to create a wronged expression: "No, Brother Xia, it's a misunderstanding. We, we didn't do anything."

Seeing how devout Xia Zhenghong was, and judging from Zhou Qi's information that he was an ordinary person, wouldn't it be easy to trick Xia Zhenghong into revealing information by using some special effects and pretending to be a god?
"We just offered a prayer, you saw it yourself, we didn't do anything. Could it be that the Heavenly Venerable has manifested His power?"

"You!" Xia Zhenghong couldn't believe such an excuse, his forehead veins bulging with anger: "Is this the power of your mixed-race speech?"

"I don't care what level of hybrids you are, or what kind of Word of Power you are. Put it away immediately. You can't be so presumptuous in the Heavenly Venerable's temple!" Zhou Minlan curled her lips in disdain. She knew there was something wrong. They actually knew about hybrids and Word of Power. What kind of ordinary person were they?

Zhou Qi, who was in charge of this intelligence, couldn't help but lower his head. Damn it, it was his fault as the investigator that he failed in his duty and failed to find out that Xia Zhenghong knew about the mixed-race people.

Just as Zhou Minyan was about to poke Zhou Minlan again, an unexpected event occurred.

The old temple has eerily returned to peace.

The seven-colored light and the three illusions vanished suddenly, as if they had never existed.

The mysterious symbol that was radiating light fell silent, and the true identities of the Zhou family trio were revealed, no longer able to be hidden.

It's as if the Great Mantra Mantra suddenly disappeared.

"..." Zhou Minlan's face turned pale, as if some incomprehensible embarrassing thing had happened.

Zhou Minyan silently adjusted, leaning her left foot forward, gathering strength in her right leg, and gradually clenching her fists. It seemed her cousin had gone too far.

Xia Zhenghong was overjoyed, completely disregarding why the three illusions had disappeared and the fact that the three Zhou family members' true forms were on the other side. He kept praying, "Homage to the Heavenly Venerable of Blessing and Prosperity."

He began to laugh wildly in his heart at the Zhou family trio's overestimation of their abilities, how dare they pretend to be gods in the temple?
These three will surely suffer divine punishment!

This is the consequence of blasphemy!

Seeing that Xia Zhenghong neither attacked nor called for help, Zhou Minyan's eyes flashed with confusion. While watching Xia Zhenghong warily, she asked, "What's going on?"

Zhou Minlan shook her head weakly: "I...I don't know. The datura seems to be sealed. It's completely unusable."

"I……!"

Zhou Minlan didn't have time to say anything more; she only felt waves of inexplicable, excruciating pain and instinctively clutched her lower abdomen with her left hand.

There were no visible external injuries, but the left kidney had inexplicably fallen in front of him, and it was blood red!
"Ah!" Just as he was about to let out a painful scream, another sharp pain shot through his right arm. For some reason, the entire bone of his right hand had fallen to his side, and his right arm was strangely shriveled up. He was in excruciating pain!

Such absurd and bizarre methods of harming people send chills down one's spine.

The strange, excruciating pain inside her body felt like a dull knife cutting into her flesh, tormenting Zhou Minlan until her pretty face turned pale. If it weren't for the special constitution of her mixed-race heritage, she would have already gone into shock from the pain.

"Minlan!" Zhou Minyan was in a panic, unable to see the enemy at all, and had no idea how the enemy had done it.

If we want to be on guard, we have no enemy to fight against!
There was only Xia Zhenghong, an ordinary person, around. He had no weapons, did not use any incantations, and Zhou Minlan did not even have any external injuries. Her organs and bones simply passed through her body and fell off.

This is outrageous!
Zhou Qi reacted quickly, drawing his gun and locking it on Xia Zhenghong. Regardless of how injured Zhou Minlan was, it must be related to Xia Zhenghong: "Stop!"

Even when facing the dark muzzle of a gun, Xia Zhenghong felt no fear.

With faith in our hearts, we are not afraid of weapons.

Xia Zhenghong glanced down at his left kidney and right hand bones, then bowed again to the mysterious symbol: "Merciful Heavenly Venerable, a small punishment serves as a great warning."

"Imitating a god is a grave sin of blasphemy. In other times, you would probably have died without a burial place and faced even greater terror before your death."

“But the Heavenly Venerable is merciful and has not taken your lives. You should be grateful for the Heavenly Venerable’s benevolence, instead of making a fuss and disturbing the peace of the temple.”

Before Zhou Minyan could say anything more, she noticed someone approaching from outside.

Xu Lie's clone and Lao Tang arrived together. Xu Lie was dressed casually, wearing an old-fashioned brown-blue rural long gown and black leggings, looking very rustic.

Old Tang, on the other hand, was quite flamboyant, wearing a purple suit jacket and pink trousers that he had bought from who-knows-where. He was as carefree as a turkey as he swaggered into the old temple.

Upon seeing him, Xia Zhenghong changed his demeanor and respectfully bowed his head, saying, "Bishop Huang Tao, Mr. Tang."

Overwhelmed by pain, Zhou Minlan, who was already unsteady on her feet and swaying, realized that the person who had hurt her was very likely Bishop Huang!
　Thank you so much, Angel Luo, for the generous donation! Sending you a heart!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)