Demon Cultivator in Abyssal Era

"But why doesn’t the Divine Dragon fight back?"

"Are you silly? Didn’t the Saint Monk say it’s all a test for us! If the Divine Dragon vanquished the evil demon at once, how would we be tested? I reckon, once everyone has made their choice, the Divine Dragon will unleash its divine power to annihilate the evil demon!"

"Oh, right!"

The crowd was abuzz with discussion, and most people were engulfed in suspicion and doubt.

Of course, some people supported Chu Xiu because, as seen so far, it was Chu Xiu who saved them from the series of disasters, not the elusive Buddha!

But that’s the nature of religion, it doesn’t require explanation or questioning, a simple "Buddha’s trial" can resolve all doubts.

This is where the terror of religion lies, as it uses a dual binding mode that gradually forms an inertial thinking pattern so that people obey even the most outrageous orders unconditionally without reflection.

The specific manipulation is: give a directive with two options, but whichever is chosen, negative feedback is given. Over time, the oppressed will go from doubting themselves to losing themselves, to unconditionally following orders.

This is commonly seen in the training of animals, but it is also effective on humans.

Under the long-term brainwashing of the Buddhist sect, a large number of residents began to doubt, and there were also some ’smart ones’ inciting others. They dared not act first, so they incited others to leave and watched on the sidelines.

Under such circumstances, as time passed, the number of doubting people not only didn’t decrease but increased!

Within a few minutes, thousands of people had left!

"Damn, this bunch of fools!"

Even Chu Xiu couldn’t help but feel a surge of irritation, had it not been for the requirements of the trial, why would he care about the life and death of these people? He wouldn’t even blink if they all died!

Of course, this emotion only arose for a moment before Chu Xiu suppressed it.

Emotions have no help in completing the trial.

He took a deep breath, calmed his mind, and then appeared next to Liang Zhan with a swish.

At this time, Liang Zhan was trying to persuade the residents who wanted to leave, but because he was labeled as an accomplice bewitched by an evil demon, his persuasion sometimes backfired among those long brainwashed by Buddhism.

"Sir, what should we do now?"

Seeing Chu Xiu appear, Liang Zhan wiped the sweat from his forehead and asked anxiously.

"You continue to find a way to persuade them, we’re at the final juncture now."

"I can’t help you with this round. With my current identity, anything I say will be met with suspicion."

"In other words, how many people can be saved all depends on you, General Liang."

With Chu Xiu’s words, Liang Zhan’s face became more solemn, clearly realizing the burden on his shoulders.

"What about you, sir?" he asked.

Chu Xiu raised his head and pointed to the sky: "I have to find a way to safely send back those who believe in us."

After calming down, Chu Xiu was already aware that even if no one was bewitched, he still faced the challenge of how to transport these twenty thousand people back to the Corpse Demon World.

So now, he didn’t have the luxury of worrying about whether everyone believed him, it could only be left to Liang Zhan, while he needed to solve the problem of returning to the Corpse Demon World first!

Fortunately, Chu Xiu already had a plan.

He waved his hand and the massive body of the Earth Dragon descended from the sky!

"Boom!"

With the fall of this gigantic creature, a huge expanse of dust was immediately raised!

This again caused a burst of exclamations from the residents.

However, the appearance of the Earth Dragon didn’t regain any points in the hearts of the people for Chu Xiu, instead, it had an opposite effect.

The reason was none other than the Earth Dragon was much smaller than the Celestial Dragon, and due to being a resurrected corpse, it was covered with decayed flesh that exuded a foul stench even from afar, an utter contrast to the golden and radiant Celestial Dragon.

This deepened the bitterness on Liang Zhan’s face.

But Chu Xiu had no time to care about that. He pointed with his hand, and the remaining life energy stored in the Spirit and Flesh Storage Pouch started to pour into the Earth Dragon.

Not only that, but with a wave of his hand, dozens of drops of blood flew to the Earth Dragon’s side and immediately exploded into pure life energy!

These blood droplets were exchanged by him from the Blood Pool earlier, used to quickly enhance the completion of the Heaven-Reaching Blood Vine, each drop contained abundant life energy and was of extremely high value.

At this moment, he couldn’t afford to save, all of it was sent into the Earth Dragon, followed by initiating [Perfect Refining].

He needed to use a massive amount of life ability to maximize the integrity of the Earth Dragon, allowing it to perform a transport function similar to the Celestial Dragon!

Fortunately, when Chu Xiu dealt with this creature initially, he did so by slaying Moloch, with whose life it shared, keeping its body well-preserved.

At this moment, it only needed to repair and reboot the dead cells and nerves.

As the vast amount of life force flowed in, the Earth Dragon’s power attribute increased at an astonishing speed! The previously dull and rotten flesh also began to regain its luster!

"Due to gravity here, the rate at which air dissipates isn’t fast, and deep within there’s a continuous supplement of oxygen."

Even though Chu Xiu didn’t know complex physical diffusion equations, he could roughly estimate that the oxygen concentration wouldn’t drop to a level where ordinary people couldn’t survive for at least a day.

"There’s still time!"

Knowing this, Chu Xiu devoted himself entirely to refining the Earth Dragon.

Meanwhile, Liang Zhan also began persuading the crowd.

"Folks! Don’t rush to make a decision! I, Liang Zhan, have something to say, and I hope you’ll listen patiently out of respect for my twenty years of guarding the frontline!" Liang Zhan said earnestly.

But evidently, the crowd wasn’t buying his words.

"General Liang, we are grateful for your many years of guarding us, but the Saint Monk claims you’ve been bewitched by the evil demon! How can we trust you?"

"Yes, who knows if you deliberately let the evil demon into the city?"

"General, one thing doesn’t cancel the other, you’ve taken a salary for guarding the frontline, bringing it up now is somewhat suspicious, isn’t it?"

Hearing the successive doubts from below, Liang Zhan’s face turned somewhat unsightly. After pondering for a while, he ceased to argue and instead asked the Buddhist inspectors to bring out a visual recording mechanism to play back the scenes of Chu Xiu fighting against countless Hungry Ghosts.

Soon, the footage was projected into the sky and, with the help of several Buddhist Elders, expanded so that everyone present could see it clearly.

Initially, the people only heard of Chu Xiu saving them from frontline soldiers and had no real sense of it, with many even suspecting Chu Xiu was orchestrating the events.

But upon witnessing the densely packed, wave-like army of Hungry Ghosts, the scene fell silent.

The shock of the countless Hungry Ghosts roaring and surging forward was beyond imagination through mere description!

When the camera panned to the two thousand Upper Position Hungry Ghosts covering the sky, everyone gasped in astonishment.

Though they’ve not been to the frontline, they know well the terror of Upper Position Hungry Ghosts!

In word-of-mouth stories, in the tales told by frontline soldiers, and in ancient records, Upper Position Hungry Ghosts were the strongest evil demons, comparable to the Buddhist Elders!

And now, such powerful entities could be counted by the thousands!

This completely upended their worldview!

When Chu Xiu dashed into the Hungry Ghost tide, killing indiscriminately, the scene became pin-drop silent, with everyone staring wide-eyed at the scene playing in the sky.

The Buddhist Elders were like gods in their minds, and Chu Xiu’s strength far surpassed theirs by hundreds and thousands of times!

Such power, besides Buddha, who else could possess it? If it were truly an evil Demon God, how could they still be alive?

Liang Zhan’s voice sounded again: "Folks, I don’t want to use my status to sway your decisions, I only plead with you to lay aside blind obedience to Buddhism and think rationally for a moment."

"I can vouch with my twenty years in the military, such a large-scale Hungry Ghost tide is something no line of defense can withstand, not the three thousand frontline soldiers, not the Dharma Protector Vajras in Buddhism either!"

"If what stands before you is really an evil demon, it could have directly led the Hungry Ghost tide to invade. Why bother to stage such an elaborate act?"

"I want to ask, who repeatedly saves us from life and death crises? And who cares not a bit for our lives, manipulating the Divine Dragon to stir a natural disaster?"

"If it weren’t for Buddha holding us, everyone present would now have been crushed into pulp beneath the giant rocks!"

"Can all this be simply brushed aside with a mere ’test’?"