It doesn't matter what the lord is.

Merlin wiped the blood off his face and said with a smile:

"The three factors you just mentioned that limit the development of human beings to a higher level, physical strength, the national defense formation, and the tenth level of thunder tribulation, I actually thought about them when I was young. So, I was promoted to the tenth level outside the human territory, which is why few people know my realm so far."

Merlin exhaled a breath of hot air with a bloody smell, narrowed his eyes, and said:

"But I still can't surpass the tenth level to reach a higher level. Although I have accumulated a lot of power, it seems that these powers are locked and cannot be transformed into an improvement in realm. It is said that the tenth level of thunder tribulation can change the body structure and make people stronger, but is it really so? I don't understand it, and I'm too lazy to figure it out. The tenth level is enough for me. But if you want to go further, it's best not to touch that thunder for the time being."

Reed nodded and walked into the snow.

94. Children born at night

What is “God”?

Cannot be seen, touched, or communicated with.

We can only look up, kneel down, and prostrate ourselves on the ground to praise their fame with gratitude.

Temples are everywhere in the Kingdom of Eternal Heaven, and you can easily find one in any slightly larger city. The glamorous priests passionately spread the gospel to the people, and the ragged people were refreshed by listening. They willingly took out their last few copper coins, handed them to the merit box, and kowtowed to the statue in the shrine with all their might.

This is how mortals beg for God's grace.

……

Huang Yan was born into a poor family.

On the day I was born, the stars were dim, the moon was hidden behind dark clouds, and the sky and the earth were dark.

It was as if the night was unwilling to give its color to this newborn baby. Huang Yan's hair was all white, and her pupils were a very light gray. She didn't cry when she was born. The midwife was worried that she would suffocate to death, so she patted her face with her hands until it was swollen. Huang Yan then let out a short whimper, which was considered to be a pass.

The midwife, who was over 70 years old, wiped the sweat off her face, pulled Huang Yan's parents to a corner, and said in a trembling voice:

"God, look at this little girl's eyes. Do they look like the vultures that circled in the sky when people in the village were starving to death?"

The superstitious parents turned their heads carefully and saw the baby in the cradle blinking his eyes and stretching his little hands upwards as if trying to grab something in the sky.

"She is the devil's child..."

This idea was deeply rooted in people's minds. The midwife advised the parents to send the child to the temple and let the priests purify the ominous blood. The priests were professionals in this matter. Last month, they stabbed a newborn baby's heart with a silver cross sword because the baby had a red birthmark on his forehead, which was somewhat similar to the three eyes of the devil in the legend.

However, the parents did not have the heart to send their daughter to her doom. After all, this was their child, and their only child.

Huang Yan survived like this, but she never enjoyed the warmth of family. The burly man beat his wife every now and then, accusing her of giving birth to a disaster, and suspected that she had an affair with other men because Huang Yan looked nothing like him. The woman did not dare to fight back, but only stared at Huang Yan with her swollen eyes full of hatred in the dead of night, repeating over and over again in a voice that only the two of them could hear:

"It would be great if you weren't here, it would be great if you weren't here...!"

On countless nights, little Huang Yan woke up from his dreams and heard his mother's most unforgettable curse.

Finally, when Huang Yan was four years old, the woman gave birth to another boy. He was a lovely child, and almost immediately won the love of the whole family. Huang Yan clearly remembered that at that time, his parents held a little baby in their arms, with happy smiles on their faces, and kept making him happy. While they were making fun of him, the two turned their heads together and looked in the direction of Huang Yan, and the smiles on their faces disappeared completely in an instant.

The poor family could not afford to raise two children, and with the appearance of a healthy and lively new member who could carry on the family line, Huang Yan's existence seemed no longer necessary. The couple discussed it and decided not to send Huang Yan to the temple for execution. Instead, they adopted a gentler approach that would make their conscience a little better - abandoning the child in the wilderness.

This is a very popular method nowadays. When a girl or an unhealthy child is born, many families will put the baby in a basket and throw it into a deserted place, or put it in a wooden basin and throw it into the river. They say that "good luck will come to you, and if you are lucky enough to be picked up by a wealthy family, you may be rich and powerful for the rest of your life." They use this idea to cover up the crime of murder through self-hypnosis again and again.

It was winter, with heavy snow and extremely cold weather.

It was a pitch-black night, with an eerie green light flickering across the wilderness as the wolf approached slowly following the scent.

The sensible Huang Yan did not cry or make a fuss. She was only wearing a thin piece of clothing and was running clumsily in the dark on her short legs.

But the child obviously couldn't compete with the four-legged beast in running speed. The hungry wolf soon came behind her and opened its bloody mouth to bite her.

Huang Yan raised his little fist and stared at the gray wolf in front of him, as if wanting to beat it away.

However, let alone a four-year-old girl, even an ordinary adult would not be able to deal with such an enemy with bare hands.

The sharp canines of the wolf leader were only a few centimeters away from Huang Yan's head, but were suddenly blocked by a wooden stick. The hungry wolf bit the stick to pieces, staring at the uninvited guest with its green eyes, and the saliva splashed on Huang Yan's face.

A ragged man stood there, about fifty years old, with a middle-aged to old appearance, half-white hair, untidy beard, holding a broken bowl in one hand and a half-bitten stick in the other, and was yelling at the wolves.

The hungry wolf pounced on him, digging its teeth into his body.

The man seemed to feel no pain and kept hitting the wolves around him with the stick. It was not until the wolves became frightened after their heads were broken and bleeding, and turned around and retreated to a distant place that the man stopped, turned around, and smiled at Huang Yan who was standing there.

Only the white of his eyes remained, and he obviously couldn't see anything. He smelled sour all over, and his clothes were stained with rotten vegetable leaves. His exposed hands and feet were like the ground that hadn't rained for three years, dry and cracked, without the slightest blood color. Such a person would only attract the cold stares of the people around him when walking on the street, but Huang Yan unexpectedly felt friendly to him.

Because this was the first time Huang Yan saw someone smile at her. From the perspective of her 18 years of life, it was almost the last time.

The blind old beggar poked the ground with a wooden stick, leaned down, and after a while of groping, his trembling hand touched Huang Yan's forehead. He touched her head with his broad palm and asked:

"Where are your parents?"

Huang Yan shook his head.

The old beggar coughed twice, and blood dripped from his sleeves into the mud. He took off his flea-infested coat and wrapped it around Huang Yan, saving him from freezing. Huang Yan sniffed, his eyes slightly red. The old man and the young man sat in the wilderness, and the old beggar asked Huang Yan:

"I have been alone for most of my life, and I don't know when I will die. I have no wife and no children. Every time I go out to beg, I envy others who have children and grandchildren to take care of. If you have nowhere to go, come with me. I am poor and have nothing to give you; but as long as you call me foster father, from now on, even if I only have one bite to eat, I will share it with you, okay?"

95. The Calamity Falls from the Sky

In the years that followed, Huang Yan followed the old beggar and experienced all the sufferings of the world.

Only about a quarter of the year can we get leftovers. Most of the time, we can't eat normal meals, and even rotten meals are just a luxury. The concept of food usually refers to a paste made from boiled wild vegetables, tree bark and insects, which tastes bitter, sour and astringent, just like drinking bile directly.

But the old beggar was an experienced man. During the drought ten years ago, many people in the north of Yongtian would choose to dig up the immortal soil to eat, but he refused to let Huang Yan touch that thing. It was a white soil block, which was very beautiful after being ground into powder, and looked very much like refined wheat flour. The taste was acceptable. Many people took this soil home to steam buns while thanking the gods for their salvation. After eating it, the soil block condensed in the stomach, and the stomachs of the people were as big as balls. Soon after, they died in great pain.

During the most difficult time for the two of them, Huang Yan did not eat or drink for two days and had a high fever. That night, the old beggar cut his wrist, boiled the blood in a pot, boiled it into blood clots and fed it to Huang Yan.

Huang Yan remembered that day when he felt dizzy and heavy. He could only feel the sweet and fishy food being put into his mouth. His teeth began to chew on their own initiative. In his ears was the weak and stubborn voice of the old man:

"Remember, you are the son of God's hatred, and your luck is naturally worse than others. If you want to succeed, you can't rely on luck. The only thing you can trust is the knife in your hand."

This kind of life continued. Huang Yan followed the old beggar to learn martial arts day after day, and his realm began to grow slowly. The two of them traveled from north to south, from one city to another, from one territory to another. Huang Yan's figure became more and more upright, his realm became more and more profound, and his pure white face and cold eyes became less and less popular with ordinary people.

During this period, Huang Yan saw countless officials who were doing nothing but patting their bellies as they walked through the desolate streets. Their eyes were filled with not sympathy and pity, but deep sarcasm. They always liked to raise their hands, point at those struggling in the mud and say to the servants around them: Look, that's the result of not working hard. Laborers are controlled by others all their lives. This is their fate from generation to generation.

During this period, Huang Yan had passed by the temple countless times, watching the priests and nuns praying solemnly, watching ridiculous miracles happen in the world, and watching countless people offering sacrifices to the gods until they went bankrupt. They still had smiles on their faces, as if the suffering in this life would be transformed into endless happiness in the next life.

What is “God”?

In Huang Yan's view, gods are just like those high-ranking officials, a group of self-righteous fools. They enjoy the people's awe and worship, showing their uniqueness and nobility, but what have they done for this world full of suffering? How many people die of hunger every minute and every second in this world, how many people fall to the ground and groan while holding their shriveled or swollen bellies, how many people kneel in the wind and snow with dull eyes, how many people smile miserably with no clothes to cover their bodies and covered in filth, who in the heavens knows?

Many people in this world live like unhuman beings and have no human dignity at all.

Three hundred thousand disaster victims were trapped in the snow at Tianyue Mountain. Who really cared?

Whenever he saw this happen, Huang Yan would silently tighten the knife in his hand, with uncontrollable anger in his eyes.

Since you don't care, why should I respect you?

It's just like putting a stone in a temple or placing a statue in a court. What's the difference?

All these gods in the sky have resounding names and are extremely powerful, but in the end, aren't they just puppets made of clay?

Huang Yan once asked his adoptive father why the gods in heaven were so indifferent to the misery of the world. The old beggar laughed loudly, tapped his painful cervical vertebra with a black dog-beating stick, and said to Huang Yan:

"Peace? What do those gods want peace for! The more frequent the disasters in this world, the more people will place their hopes on illusory things. A little miracle is enough to buy people's hearts and harvest all faiths like rice. Look at these temples, big and small, which one is not full every day? This tattered but not collapsed Eternal Heaven is the state that the gods want to maintain the most. This is where they raise livestock."

Huang Yan listened silently and said nothing.

The old beggar tapped the ground with his dog-beating stick, then pointed to the sky above his head, and said in a contemptuous tone:

"If you want true peace, destroy this country first. Trample all thirty-six territories under your feet, and make those dog-like bigwigs lie on the ground and serve as your stepping stones!"

"As long as the sky above our heads does not change, the world will never be better; as long as the sky remains the same, the world will remain the same!"

From that day on, Huang Yan started killing people.

Robbing the rich to help the poor, killing people to prove her faith, her masked portrait appeared on various levels and styles of wanted posters, and she was described as a demon who killed people without blinking an eye, and gradually gained some followers. Later one day, the blind old beggar called Huang Yan to him, tried to straighten his bent back, raised his hand and touched Huang Yan's head, which was taller than him, and said to her:

"You have grown up, and your godfather has grown old. You will sweat profusely after walking a few steps. I am afraid that I can't accompany you to go any further. But your godfather can still do one last thing for you, which is to risk his life to help you find a glimmer of possibility of survival from the heavenly calamity. You have to walk the road ahead by yourself, and when you can't hold on any longer, you have to grit your teeth and persevere alone. No matter what happens in the future, don't forget the hatred of today, don't forget the anger of now..."

In the second year after the blind old beggar's death, Huang Yan started a rebellion and aimed his troops at the entire Yongtian Kingdom.

Because she had seen too much displacement, she no longer had hope in anyone.

Her hatred for the world has penetrated deep into her bones. In her eyes, the entire Eternal Heaven Kingdom is rotten to the core. It is not feasible to initiate top-down reforms like the white-robed minister Wu Mi did. The only way is to start over again.

That's why the rebel army in the south grew like wild weeds. Even though the various territories of the Yongtian Kingdom tried every means to encircle and suppress them, the banner of resistance was never completely broken.

It’s a pity that she was unable to survive the tribulation at the age of eighteen.

She could no longer lead them forward, but it didn't matter. After the turmoil, a new leader would most likely emerge, even if before that, countless more people would die tragically in this cannibalistic world.

Under the lightning as bright as the sun, Huang Yan opened his eyes and sighed softly.

I'm sorry, godfather. I'm sorry to the people who follow me.

At least in the end, I can choose a way to die that suits me.

She stood in the land under the thunderstorm, staring at the lightning in the sky, not afraid of the coming death, and without regrets for her past life. As if in response to her anger, a bolt of lightning suddenly fell, but it did not hit her head, but struck in front of her as if to tease her. Then, one after another, the heavenly calamity fell, the thunderstorm was crisscrossed, the earth was pulverized, and the foothold under her feet was completely destroyed. Huang Yan, who lost her balance, finally fell to the dusty ground.

At that moment, "God" seemed satisfied.

Then an extremely ferocious divine thunder pierced down on her head like a spear from the sky, and it seemed that it was only a split second away from piercing through her proud head.

Huang Yan gently closed his eyes.

And at that moment, the pitch-black gauntlet suddenly hit the falling lightning!

The crackling sound of electricity continued to ring, and the silver lightning was bounced out after a brief delay, deviating from its original trajectory and blasting a large hole in the ground in the distance.

Huang Yan opened her eyes and looked at the scene in front of her in astonishment. Beside her, the young man stood there quietly, half of his arm was charred, lightning was surging on his black flame armor, and hot air kept rising up.

The hand that was burned by lightning hung beside him, blood dripping onto the ground. He turned his head and looked at Huang Yan with a smile.

"I, Lid, am standing here today. I want to see which of these divine thunders in the sky dares to strike you on the head."

96. Allies

The clouds sank.

The dark clouds seemed unable to bear the weight of the thunderstorm and began to slowly fall to the ground until they were less than a few dozen meters from the ground. A huge cyclone that distorted the sky formed in the center, covering the sky within a hundred miles around. There were lightning and thunder, wind and rain, dust and ice and snow flying up, and the scenery before us looked like doomsday.

Huang Yan was a little dazed for a moment, the wind made it hard for her to open her eyes. She closed her eyes temporarily, and the surroundings immediately fell into darkness. She didn't know when the tears that had surged out flowed down her eyes.

Huang Yan raised his hand, wiped his eyes vigorously with his sleeve, smiled slightly, and said:

"Last time you said I shouldn't have come, and this time you're making the same mistake again."

Lid exhaled, and the black flames on his hand surged. He stared at the center of the storm and said to Huang Yan:

"If possible, I hope you will call this a brave, selfless, and admirable heroic act, and regard me as a collection of the best things in the world, preferably the kind that can be followed by rose petal special effects as soon as I appear."

After a pause, he said again:

"Also, what about your evil spirit from the past? You need to stand up."

His clothes fluttered in the wind and thunderstorm, and the heat on his lips disappeared without a trace in the blink of an eye.

With the appearance of Lid, the thunderstorm seemed to hesitate for a moment. Perhaps it was because the scene of two "Sons of Heaven's Hate" appearing at the same time was unprecedented, or perhaps it was because the scene of the heavenly calamity being blocked just now was too strange, or perhaps it wanted the person standing on the ground to say his final farewell words... There are many reasons that can be thought of, but the result is consistent: the thunderstorm in the sky paused briefly, and the second heavenly calamity did not strike immediately.

Instead, the thunderstorms in the outer ring of the cyclone poured down to the ground like a waterfall, and the electric grid within hundreds of miles was like intertwined tree roots. The air seemed to be burning, and the smell of burning was everywhere. This seemed to be just an appetizer. The lightning that almost stabbed the eyes was just an encirclement to prevent Li De and Huang Yan from escaping. The real calamity was still to come. Just look up at the sky, and you will find that in the center of the cyclone there is a ball of lightning as dazzling as the sun, absorbing the endless lightning in the dark clouds and becoming bigger and bigger.

Reed looked at the thunder, without flinching or escaping, and calmly stretched out his hand toward the sky.

The fist slowly closed, and black flames gushed out from the ground and rushed straight into the sky.

The second heavenly calamity fell. This time it was far less gentle than the last time, like a divine punishment sword shooting down from the sky, piercing Lid's body accurately. After all, he was the only one standing in this vast world, never lowering his proud head, and never lamenting his fate.

The sky thunder, which was as thick as a man's embrace, was stopped by the blazing black flames. The black fire and the white thunder smashed together, raising a gust of hot wind that made the earth tremble. The black flame armor began to make a creaking sound. It was very difficult for it to withstand the heavenly tribulation at the level of [He Xun]. Under this kind of power that could destroy the world, human strength was too weak.

Huang Yan watched helplessly as the lightning pierced through the Black Flame Shield and struck Lid, knocking his not-so-tall body upwards, lightning and thunder all over his flesh and blood. His eyeballs bulged outward, his cheeks sunken, his teeth clenched so hard that blood flowed from his gums.

When Lid landed, his whole body was steaming, his hair was black and curly from being electrocuted, and half of his body was covered with bloody wounds. Huang Yan half-knelt beside him, watching his blood flow without being able to stop it.

Lid is not the son of Tianyan. But the heavenly tribulation will not weaken because of this. On the contrary, it will become stronger and stronger because it cannot defeat him.

But this is exactly what Lid wants to see.

From the little slime's description, Reed learned one thing.

The heavenly tribulation was divided into two parts, one was used to break the body of the Son of Heavenly Disgust, and the other was used to purify the Heavenly Disgust Qi. As long as he could help Huang Yan resist half of the heavenly tribulation and prevent the remaining thunder from completely destroying her body, then Li De would be considered the winner.

Until then, no matter how many times he falls, he will stand up.

Huang Yan tightly grasped the hilt of the knife in his hand and said in a hoarse voice:

"Go ahead... I'll bear this calamity by myself. I owed you a life when we entered Lingwu. Now that you can kill all the giants, I'll repay you. You don't owe me anything, so there's no need to risk your life for me."

Lid exhaled, and while waiting for the third heavenly tribulation, which he was not sure whether he could survive, he said to Huang Yan:

"Didn't you say we are brothers? Why do brothers still care about these things?"