Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton
Chapter 1257 - Chapter 1257 Chapter 820 Blasphemers Die

Chapter 1257: Chapter 820: Blasphemers, Die! Chapter 1257: Chapter 820: Blasphemers, Die! In the Black Stone Plane, High Priest Abas watched the increasingly visible plane fragments in the sky with unparalleled inner peace.

Long, long ago, the Black Stone Plane had already endured a plane-level catastrophe. A black Giant Rock fell from the sky, destroying the vast majority of life on the plane. Even now, black Stones can still be unearthed near the impact site, which is why they named their Plane after it–Black Stone.

Few long-lived species have a clear recollection of the initial scene: the Giant Rock fell from the heavens, shaking the earth and mountains, while the dust it stirred obscured the sun and sky, the intense shockwave toppled forests, leveled mountain ranges, and evaporated rivers.

Nearly all life perished in that disaster, with only a few Tree People and sea monsters surviving and retaining the memories of that time.

Thus, the Black Stone Plane is deeply haunted by an apocalyptic complex, where various Doomsday groups run rampant–like the Extreme Survival Party, the Hoarding and Lying Flat Party, the Doomsday Harem Party, the Pioneer Farming Party, and the likes.

Abas is the High Priest of the Temple of Doomsday, and unlike those Doomsday groups, the Temple of Doomsday preaches salvation.

They propagate the end of days everywhere, that the black Destroyer Giant Rock will descend upon a world where faith has collapsed. Only the devout contributors will be redeemed, and the True God will come to the world, stopping the black Devil God and destroying the world-ending Giant Rock.

How does one prove their devotion? Of course, by donating wealth, abandoning material possessions, and fortifying one’s heart. Only by enduring poverty and hardship can you prove the sincerity of your faith. Those whose minds are bewitched by wealth are unclean and will be abandoned by the True God.

This sort of stale rhetoric, if heard by Anthony, would have prompted him to wage a holy war against them at first opportunity.

Yet in the Black Stone Plane, where the apocalyptic complex runs deep, most people fall for this trick. Hence, the Temple of Doomsday is the only religious faction on this Plane, amassing colossal wealth, controlling most nations, and enslaving nearly every species.

Except for a few Tree People and sea monsters hiding on islands overseas, all species are devotees of the Temple of Doomsday.

However, only Abas knows that there’s no such thing as a True God. He, as the High Priest, is most aware that all the divine edicts he promulgated were fabricated by himself, following the style of past High Priests.

From the time he became a candidate for High Priest, he and his peers underwent rigorous training, with the most crucial lesson being the fabrication of divine will; anyone who couldn’t craft a convincing narrative was executed, for the Temple only needed one High Priest.

They all learned how to do it, but Abas was the best, so he became the High Priest, while his peers died. In this world, there are no Undead; the dead cannot leak secrets.

In the end, Abas became the High Priest, enjoying the infinite wealth accumulated by the Temple, leading a life of extreme luxury, thinking he would live out his days peacefully like his predecessors–until the Doomsday arrived.

Doomsday arrived, and of course, the Temple of Doomsday had work to do; otherwise, without waiting for the Destroyer Black Stone to smash down, those angry devotees would turn him into minced meat.

But how can one summon the True God to descend and destroy the apocalyptic Devil God? Abas had no idea.

Fortunately, Abas’s luck was good; early disasters did not affect the Master Plane. Everyone witnessed from the sky the light and momentum of other Planes being destroyed, and they couldn’t help but thank the True God, their offerings to the Temple became even more fervent.

Only Abas knew, it was all due to the Goddess of Fortune’s favor, and had nothing to do with any True God.

But it seems the Goddess of Fortune couldn’t favor them forever. A black Giant Rock grew visibly larger in the sky, and all the devotees had gathered together. They were on plazas, streets, rooftops, and other places, incessantly worshipping, praying for the True God’s blessing once again.

“There was never a first time, let alone a ‘once again’,” Abas muttered under his breath.

He had pondered before, if Doomsday came, what would his feelings be? Now he knew; he was calm.

In extreme despair, a person becomes extraordinarily composed and peaceful. He might have been nervous and panicky without seeing the Giant Rock in the sky, but as the rock inevitably hurtled towards the ground, he felt especially calm. His only thought was: such a pity, the Countess of Emerald had invited me for confession tonight; if only Doomsday was tomorrow instead.

At that moment, a beam of light suddenly flashed across the sky and struck the black Giant Rock. Immediately after, countless unseen ‘missiles’ hit the Giant Rock, causing chunks of it to explode into flying debris, progressively peeling away layer by layer.

The broken pieces of the rock were the first to fall, slicing through the sky and drawing fiery meteor trails.

Everyone, including Abas, watched the Miracle unfold before their eyes, dumbstruck: “Could it be… Could there really be a True God in this world?”

Regardless, the scene unfolding before their eyes could only be the work of an omnipotent God, as ceaseless attacks rained down on the meteorite, stripping it away layer by layer, until it finally burst apart completely.

The meteorite, capable of destroying an entire Plane, was shattered into pieces right before everyone’s eyes. The fragments rained down from the heavens but disintegrated in the air, causing no harm whatsoever to any life on the ground.

“Are we… saved?”

“Thwarting the black Devil God, destroying the world-ending Black Stone, it’s the True God! It is the True God!”

“True God! It is the True God! The True God is invincible! The True God lives forever! The True God protects us!”

In the sky, Ange, embodying his Primordial Body, slowly descended, looking puzzled at the crowd below, who were cheering and praying. He said blankly, “So many Soul Flames.”

“Yes, such a strong surge of faith. I feel a tide of belief like never before, on a massive scale. Could it be that the entire Plane has joined in?” Anthony said, shocked.

Despite the Church of Light’s control over the Master Plane, with the Eastern and Western Diocese under its sway, the proportion of believers wasn’t high.

The Master Plane was not only inhabited by Elves, Dwarves, and Giant Dragons, but also by followers of other deities such as the Harvest Goddess, the Insect God, and the Undead God. There were also atheists and heretics like the Stellaris Federation and the Magician’s Guild. The number of followers did not even make up half of the intelligent life on the Plane.

Furthermore, with the constant undermining between the Eastern and Western Diocese and purposeful instigations by the curia to divide and rule, Anthony had never organized such a large-scale reading of the Holy Code and therefore had never witnessed such a scale of faith surge.

At this thought, Anthony suddenly startled, “Eh? Why can I sense their tide of belief? They don’t seem like followers of the Church of Light. How can I sense the faith of heretics?”

While speaking, Anthony glanced at Ange, noticing that he too seemed confused: “Could it be because you destroyed the meteorite and saved them, they have mistaken something?”

Realizing this point, Anthony’s eyes lit up. He took a look around and then flew straight towards Abas’s location.

However, it wasn’t long before Anthony flew back, his face full of disgust, “Bad luck, a Death God’s Staff who knows nothing, whose biggest hobby is to deceive noblewomen. My Lord, could you use your coolest move and pass judgment upon him? Display your divine might.”

Ange scratched his head, thought for a moment, and pointed towards Abas’s location: “You are guilty!”

A massive sword shadow materialized, spanning heaven and earth as if it could cleave the entire Plane in two, and violently chopped down.

The Giant Sword struck exactly where Abas was located, and a pillar of blazing flame soared into the sky, accompanied by a shrill scream that echoed faintly into the air…

Negris slapped his side, “Well, that’s something. The Arbitration Sword is all illusion; so that’s how the Arbitration Sword deceives people.”

It was indeed the Arbitration Sword, and Ange’s sword was even larger than the Arbitration itself, but it was all an illusion. The real cause of Abas’s destruction was a beam of Sacred Flame.

But the effect was spectacular; all the believers who witnessed the scene fell to their knees once again.

Anthony manifested his own Consciousness Body, his authoritative voice spreading across the entire Plane: “The True God descends, those with faith shall live forever, blasphemers shall die!”