Nine Venoms Sect Founder

Following Harun's incarnation change, on top of the qualitative boost, the Dharma Sheltering Array went from golden to kaleidoscopic—making countless citizens believe that their ardent prayers kindled the change. Taking it as an auspicious sign, they redoubled their efforts—thereby enhancing the barrier's might and scope. The three Landgraves' unsettling eyes swept the Dark Stone City, ignoring the four statues to seek the root of this barrier—none popped up. Confused, the 10th and 11th kept sweeping through the city. But the 12th shifted to the kneeling citizens from whom he could sense the fluctuation of nigh-imperceptible energies. 

With lopsided eyebrows, the 12th Landgrave cast a sidelong glance at the refugees rushing into the Dark Stone City's wide open gates. Clearly, the barrier could see through intent, and only allowed in those that came for shelter. Flashing a fiendish grin, the 12th Landgrave cast a sidelong glance at the tens of thousands of refugees cramming the royal road as they pushed their way into the city—and while his brothers still looked for clues, he chopped at the mortals. The casual hand move unleashed vibration waves that devastated the refugees' eardrums. But before the thousands of citizens could hold their bleeding ears and scream, the ground cratered and their bodies burst into blood and gore. Tens of thousands dead instantly. A sea of flesh, bones and blood formed and streamed toward the barrier—it let pass. The safe refugees, those already protected by the barrier but not quite past the city gates, turned to see their brothers of misfortune's heart-wrenching state. Screams and wanton panic broke out, alarming the praying citizens, who in shock, stared at the open gates—wondering if the barrier had failed them already. 

The abrupt stop of faith supply ended the barrier's growth, albeit not for long. Knowing they only had their prayers to cling on, most of the citizens resumed with even more fervor, but by now the 12th Landgrave had already figured out how the barrier worked. "Oh, so that's how it is. The barrier has a minimum of defensive skills, but its ever-expansion and constant strengthening relies on the cattle's prayers. To crush it, we have to destroy their spirit first," the 12th Landgrave said, and not blind to the changes, his brothers had come to the same conclusion. "And here I was wondering how we were going to break through. This is a lot simpler. Someone should abuse the cattle verbally, while the two others go out and bring as many corpses as they can. I refuse to believe that mortals can withstand the trauma of a blood and corpse rain. Who wants to do the boring job?" The 11th asked. 

"I will, but you better not exceed one million victims. All in all, those are mother's meals. We must take care not to mess up her recovery speed," The 10th replied. In a silent agreement, the 11th and 12th Landgraves turned into blood whirlwinds as they raced toward nearby towns and villages. Cracking his neck, the 10th Landgrave pulled in a deep breath and screamed for all to hear: "Greetings, you worthless pieces of recycled shit. Well, not even recycled as we haven't turned you into fertilizers yet. I, the 10th of the Landgrave Assembly, have terrible news to share with you," the Sanguine Doll started, and though the barrier made sure his booming voice couldn't harm the citizens and refugees, how could they stand stoically before an existence of that level? 

For most of them, the 10th Landgrave was just a dot in the sky. Yet, hearts grew frantic, children and adults became short of breath, and the tiny figure of that childlike entity evolved into a shadow that clutched at their hearts. "To keep it short, in a very, very distant past, our mother had a terrible accident that crippled her strength and nearly claimed her life, to survive, she retreated into her homebase, and while recovering her strength, created us, one by one, so that we could speed up the process. Unfortunately, there are only two paths to that recovery: gorging on billions of souls, or sacrificing a matchless specimen. The Soul Refining Hall's splendid efforts enabled our mother to recover enough…to eat you all. But unwilling to take that extreme path, she gave Lord Revelation a chance to offer himself in exchange for your survival. He refused! Can you imagine that? And now because of Lord Revelation's lack of selflessness…you all must choke to death in crevasses—literally," the 10th Landgrave's words filled the citizens' and refugees' ears. 

At first, the city grew silent. But the more they pondered on the issue, the more the citizens found the Sanguine Doll's words reasonable. Having heard countless tales on evil cultivators, they knew of sordid rituals that turned mortals into fuel or cauldrons for a cultivator's progress. Therefore, that a godlike entity's recovery required a country's sacrifice, didn't startle many. At the same time, quality often outweighed quantity, and it surprised none that Lord Revelation, who all now considered as the number one deity of the First Range, was the only life able to replace them all. 

As if united by one mind, the citizens sought answers in the Lord's statues, but only received the age-old silence. Taking it as an admission of guilt, many felt their newfound faith vacillate. "Lord Revelation couldn't suppress the threat and refused to sacrifice himself to save us all. How despicable!" is what some wanted to say, but as they stared at the barrier and recalled the miracles performed by the Salvation Hall, the words couldn't leave their lips. Few were shameless enough to speak such outrageous words. But in a population of millions, shamelessness wasn't that hard to come by, so this happened:

"Preposterous! The Salvation Hall attempts to convince the city that Lord Revelation treats us all as his children and earnestly wishes for us to accept his call. But what kind of parent is not willing to die for his progeny? If only he had the nerve to embrace the ultimate sacrifice, our lives would have never been in such danger! Look at the gates! Look at the gory scene that will soon be our fate! Lord Revelation deceived us, and this is all his fault!"

"He dares not save us, yet still wants us to call him Lord!" One after the other, the shameless few the 10th Landgrave counted on, stood up, cast aside prayers, and ranted at the one that kept their ungrateful heads on their ungrateful necks. The outrage of that minority started swaying the many. Out of fear and unwillingness, some convinced themselves that those ungrateful few spoke the true gospel, and also rose in outrage. But as chaos rose and prayers shrank, a childish voice thundered.

"Stupid! You are all stupid! If anyone asked you to commit suicide to save a bunch of strangers, what would your answers be? Lord Revelation ended our country's chaos, healed the wounded, changed fates, performed many miracles and selflessly protects us from all demons!"

"What have you given him? What does he owe us that you all have the balls the spit on his name?"

"Lord Revelation is the savior of the Dark Stone Country! The One True God and only worthy symbol of worship. If because you lose faith and start insulting him, he abandons this country to its fate, will spite save you?!" One after another, gangs of children from all walks of life took to the streets, proclaiming rousing speeches to protect their Lord's faith. 

At that time, the 11th and 12th Landgrave returned and dropped countless corpses on the Dark Stone City's barrier. "Wait, wait!" Sensing something amiss, the 10th attempted to restrain them—a step too late. The barrier treated the corpses as enemy attacks, and without exception, burned them all to ashes. 

Trapped between the barrier's marvelous work and the child gangs' speeches, the citizens promptly regained their faith, and renewed their prayers with ten times the devotion. From a balcony of the Dark Stone City, Mehran and one of Gulseni's Door Goddess watched all this with rapt attention.

"Impressive. Not only did you guess that someone would figure out the barrier's weakness and attempt to turn the citizens against our boss, you even trained gangs of children to counter their propaganda." the Door Goddess, who oversaw the Dark Stone City alongside Mehran, blurted out.

"One man can't possibly anticipate and prepare for all eventualities on such short notice. As the boss' subordinates, it behooves us to fix those gaps for him," Mehran leisurely replied. 

…

Meanwhile, the 14th and 17th Landgraves popped out of the ground, landing before Mukri and Birandar, whose eyes nailed them both instantly. But while the 17th made no additional move, the 14th stepped forward, five golden lightning bolts flashed on his chest, and the pressure of his tyrannical fleshly body crashed on the pair.