I subdue demons and monsters, and cultivate immortality in hell to become a saint.

"Good heavens, what's going on?"

The citizens of Yingtan looked up at the sky, their faces filled with astonishment and doubt.

Thunder and dark clouds are common, but the feeling of unease today made everyone's heart sink, as if a voice was exploding in their minds: someone has broken the heavenly law, and the heavens are angry!

If the outside world is like this, the inside of the temple must be even more terrifying!

As Zhong Jiu bent over a little more, the abbot let out a pig-like scream. Cracks spread across the golden statue, resembling a spider web, and the crisp cracking sounds echoed continuously!

Crimson blood flowed from the crack; it was the blood of his primordial spirit!

"Stop worshiping! Please stop! This humble Taoist priest cannot bear this!"

The abbot screamed in agony, the unprecedented pain instantly shattering his resolve to follow the Dao.

He couldn't understand how he could be rejected by heaven and earth to such an extent.

A terrifying thought surged into his mind: Could it be... could it be that he really is the legitimate City God of the Underworld? The Underworld isn't just a legend, it truly exists?

"Weren't you so arrogant just now, demanding that I kneel down? What, now that I'm bowing to you, you can't handle it?"

Zhong Jiu sneered, no longer holding back, and bowed respectfully, his head slightly lowered.

The bow to the true god has officially concluded!

Rumble!

The thunder was deafening, and from the dark clouds, a bolt of purple lightning as thick as a bucket struck down, hitting the temple squarely!

The abbot's fragile divine realm was powerless against the lightning and instantly crumbled and disintegrated into countless points of light!

With the divine realm shattered, the incense offerings and prayers he had stolen from hundreds of thousands of people over the past few days instantly began to backfire.

He never had a divine position; he relied entirely on the divine realm to barely suppress the power of incense offerings. Now that the divine realm is shattered, how could a cultivator in the Illusionary God Realm possibly withstand such a massive amount of incense offerings and vows?

That was the power of a mortal's prayer to the gods, which only a legitimate deity could digest. He, a wild monster, forcibly possessed it, and now it has become a death warrant!

"Awooo—!!!"

A piercing scream tore through the sky, and the abbot was as if he had been thrown into a red-hot iron furnace, his whole body convulsing uncontrollably.

Even the primordial spirit is sizzling blood!

The excruciating pain wasn't excruciating, but rather it exploded from the very root of his soul, as if it were about to utterly crush his existence!

Where was even a trace of his otherworldly demeanor at this moment?

His entire face was twisted into a grotesque demonic shape, with blood mixed with cold sweat smeared all over his cheeks and dripping down his chin.

"I believe it! I completely believe it!"

The abbot scrambled forward, kowtowing repeatedly, his forehead pounding against the bluestone slabs with a resounding thud. His voice trembled like a leaf. "You are the legitimate City God of the Underworld! I am but a lowly, insignificant god, blind as a bat to dare provoke you! I beg you, Your Majesty, to have mercy and spare my worthless life!"

Regret gnawed at his internal organs like a venomous snake.

He cursed himself for being so blinded by greed! Why did he have to assume that the underworld was some kind of backstabbed force supported by some sect?

If only we had put in more effort to investigate back then, we wouldn't be in this mess today.

"My God! Is this the power of the true God?"

"We've actually messed with the ruler of the underworld! They're asking for trouble!"

"The abbot has been beaten up like this, what are we going to do? Will he be torn to pieces?"

"This is a righteous god of the underworld, equivalent to the Grim Reaper!"

The Taoist priests were so frightened that their legs went weak and they collapsed to the ground.

Who would have thought!

Their Misty Hidden Temple, which had been rampant in the region, had in the end run into a brick wall, and a brick wall of true god-level strength at that!

This is like an ant trying to shake a tree, or a mantis trying to stop a chariot; it's pure suicide!

No wonder this young man is so unscrupulous; he is a dignified god of the underworld!

The two are not even on the same level! One is a true god in the clouds, and the other is an ant in the mud!

And these fools actually went so far as to smear the underworld and even harm the City God's followers!

The thought sent chills down the spines of all the Taoists, their hearts feeling as if gripped by an icy hand.

Seeing the abbot's miserable state, they seemed to see their own fate: to be annihilated, with no chance of reincarnation!

"When you were being so aggressive just now, did you ever consider that if I were at a disadvantage, you would have spared my life?"

Zhong Jiu stood still, his posture as upright as a pine tree, his face expressionless, as if the wailing abbot at his feet was nothing more than an insignificant ant.

The sarcasm in his eyes grew stronger, and a cold smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

Ignorance is bliss, that's exactly what describes this kind of person!

This mere lewd and wild god, I don't know what kind of luck he had, that he was able to steal incense offerings and condense a divine realm.

But a pirated copy is still a pirated copy, how dare it challenge the genuine product?

Do they really think the gods of the underworld are just for show? They've gone too far!

Zhong Jiu slowly bent over, and this single movement caused the surrounding air to freeze instantly, unleashing an even more terrifying pressure!

The Taoist priests were so frightened that they covered their eyes, not daring to look at them at all. They were all silent and trembling in the corner, their crotches soaked with sweat.

"ah--!!!"

Another heart-wrenching scream rang out, and the abbot was sent flying, crashing heavily into the wall. When he slid to the ground, he was covered in blood.

His primordial spirit blood was almost completely drained. Even if he survived by chance, all his cultivation would be ruined and he would never be able to rebuild it!

In other words, the once renowned abbot of a sect, who was in charge of a powerful cultivation world, has been completely stripped of his title from this moment on! He has become a useless person!

"Click—click—"

The statue of the abbot shook violently, and jagged cracks spread rapidly before it collapsed with a crash, shattering into countless pieces.

As soon as the fragments of the statues hit the ground, they quickly turned black and a putrid stench spread out.

The abbot could no longer make a sound. Wisps of pitch-black mist seeped out, wrapping around his shattered limbs and bones, leaving behind strange and twisted patterns—the karma that belonged exclusively to evil people!

Zhong Jiu is a righteous god of the underworld, recognized by heaven and earth, and in charge of life and death in his region.

This abbot has no divine position, yet he has established a licentious shrine and stolen incense offerings, which is an act of great treason.

Now, he actually dares to make the true god kneel before him?

This is like making a father kneel before his son, which completely violates the laws of heaven and earth and is simply courting death!

It should be noted that those who can receive Zhong Jiu's bow are either his superiors, such as Yama or the judges of the underworld.

But in this world, the underworld and the netherworld revere him, and there is no one who can make him kneel down; only those who have performed great deeds for heaven and earth and are revered by all people are qualified to receive a bow from the gods.

Clearly, this abbot is neither of those.

Therefore, this clown-like false god could not even withstand Zhong Jiu's bow, and his divine realm collapsed and his statue was destroyed, almost causing his soul to be scattered!

"In the end, you still cannot bear my bow."

Zhong Jiu straightened up, his tone calm and even, as if he had only done a trivial matter.

He ultimately did not bow down completely. If he had, the abbot would have been annihilated long ago, without even the chance to wail.

"This humble Taoist priest was blind and failed to recognize a true god before his very eyes! I beg the City God for mercy!"

The abbot was on the verge of death, making hoarse sounds in his throat, but his will to live was exceptionally strong. With his last ounce of strength, he held a jade slip in both hands and struggled to raise it above his head.

"This...this is the latest incense-based deification method researched by cultivators of the Lesser Yuan Realm. I am willing to offer this item in exchange for...for a chance to live!"

With the abbot taking the lead, the other Taoists also seemed to have grasped at a straw, and they all knelt down on the ground with a thud, kowtowing repeatedly like pounding garlic.

"Please, City God, spare our lives! We know we were wrong! We will never dare to do it again!"

"Please spare us, Your Honor! We are willing to repent and mend our ways!"

Zhong Jiuli ignored the group of clowns and waved his hand, and the jade slip flew into his hand automatically.

He glanced at the contents of the jade slip, his brows furrowed instantly, and a chilling light flashed in his eyes.

"What a fool!"

In Zhong Jiu's view, this so-called method of becoming a god through incense offerings is utterly immoral and treasonous!

The orthodox path to becoming a god should be to first obtain a divine position and be recognized by heaven and earth, and then establish a temple to help the world. If one is truly dedicated to the people, the people will naturally offer incense, and the incense will burn for a long time.

But this method of achieving divinity through incense offerings is a complete perversion of morality!

They entrust their primordial spirit to a divine statue, use evil magic to bewitch the people, steal incense offerings, and over time, they eventually become gods themselves.

Even if they truly became gods, they would be false gods or wild gods not recognized by heaven and earth, with a weak foundation and easily defeated.

As a legitimate deity, Zhong Jiu instinctively felt disgusted by such unorthodox and heretical practices.

In particular, the jade slip clearly states, "The common people are all straw dogs, only used for incense offerings." What is the difference between this and treating people like pigs and dogs and keeping them in captivity?

If these cultivators were to succeed, they would surely keep the people captive, blind their minds, and force them to keep having children, all in order to provide a continuous supply of offerings.

Those people who were kept in captivity were born as tools, without any freedom, and could only provide incense offerings for the cultivators. How pitiful!

This kind of evil method of depriving others of their lives is simply outrageous!

Otherwise, if the people just wanted to go to Guiling City, why would they have gone to such lengths to kill them?