"Three months ago, there was news from the northern border that a group of people suddenly left the city, which caught my attention." Tan Xingbang's expression was solemn as he said, "You must know that the northern border of our Four River Country is the Endless Desert. It is very strange for so many people to suddenly leave the city."
Lu An nodded slightly. There was no value in going to a place like the Endless Desert. It was indeed unexpected for so many people to suddenly leave the city.
"According to the border guards, there were thousands of people who entered the desert. Most of them were poor people and slaves. Risking their lives to enter the Endless Desert is undoubtedly sending themselves to their deaths." Tan Xingbang continued, "However, my army can only manage the border guards. I have no right to manage people leaving the city. It should be managed by the government. However, I was still worried and sent people to the city lord's mansion to inquire about this matter. "
"The answer given by the city lord's mansion was that these people are good people and not fugitives. They have no right to ask where they want to go, even if it is the desert." Tan Xingbang said, "My people wanted the city lord's mansion to help investigate this matter, but the city lord's mansion refused. They said that they have many things to do and have no time to care about this matter. However, I felt that this matter was too strange. Thus, I sent troops into the desert to search for these people while secretly sending troops into the city to investigate. "
"Did you find anything?" Lu An asked.
"Yes!" Tan Xingbang clenched his teeth and said angrily, "From the news from the city, we found out that this matter is indeed related to a religion! This religion is called 'Spiritual God Religion'. According to the religion, it is a religion that can transcend all suffering and allow people to be reborn and even become a god! "
God?
Lu An frowned. Anything related to 'God' was, without a doubt, a liar!
"The Spirit God Cult is indeed very different from other religions. Other religions simply brainwash people, but the Spirit God Cult teaches you some cultivation methods." Tan Xingbang said, "My people infiltrated the Spiritual God Religion and obtained this cultivation method. This method is indeed not a bluff. It is useful for the human body and can get rid of the fatigue of the human body. It even has a certain effect on the sea of consciousness!"
Lu An was stunned. There were very few powers in the world that could cultivate the Sea of Knowledge. He had never seen a power that could allow ordinary people to cultivate. Such a low threshold of cultivation could indeed easily brainwash ordinary people.
"According to the Spirit God Cult, these people aren't cultivating techniques, but the teachings of the Spirit God Cult." Tan Xingbang said, "But if that's all, it's fine. After all, it's good for the people's health. But less than half a month after my people infiltrated, the Spirit God Church's disciple in charge of them issued an order, saying that in order to help them transcend their suffering, they needed to go to the Infinite Desert to cultivate!"
"These commoners have already received benefits, so they are naturally willing to believe each other's words. My people have also gone to investigate." Tan Xingbang gritted his teeth and said, "There are only a hundred people in this group. After leaving the city and entering the desert, it didn't take long for them to arrive at a palace hidden under the desert. The Spirit God Cult's people actually used a special method to forcefully pull out all of these commoners' consciousness from their sea of consciousness and put them into a container! "
Pull out their consciousness?
Lu An's brows tightened. If it was just ordinary consciousness, it would cause a person to faint, but they wouldn't die. They just needed to wait for their sea of consciousness to slowly release their consciousness to fill it up. But if even his Divine Sense was taken away, he would die directly!
Most Heavenly Masters didn't have a deep understanding of the sea of consciousness and consciousness, and it was the same even for Level 6 Heavenly Masters. Lu An asked, "Are they dead?"
"Dead!" Tan Xingbang said with a face full of resentment, "They are all dead!"
"…"
Lu An's brows were tightly knitted. Just as he expected, the commoners' consciousness were all taken away. After all, the commoners' consciousness was too little, and there wasn't much of it to absorb. It was completely useless. Only by taking away their consciousness would they be able to accumulate and use it for cultivation.
If he didn't guess wrongly, the cultivation technique that he taught the commoners was just a prelude to the process. It allowed the commoners' consciousness to assimilate and fuse together. Furthermore, it would be easier to open the door to the commoners' sea of consciousness without harming their consciousness. This way, they would be able to gather all of the commoners' consciousness and use it for cultivation.
However … Lu An's gaze turned grave. According to his estimation, no matter what, even if a thousand commoners' consciousness were to be gathered together, it would at most be equivalent to a Level 4 Heavenly Master's consciousness. Furthermore, could this consciousness really be absorbed for their own use?
Taking a step back, even if they could really absorb it, so what? Heavenly arts didn't require too much consciousness power. Even if all the heavenly arts were to be used up, the consumption of consciousness power would at most be a third. What was the point of having so much consciousness power?
Consciousness attack?
Lu An's heart shook. This was the only possibility he could speculate. The Spirit God Cult's true power was a heaven art that was related to spiritual consciousness attacks. Only illusions and spiritual consciousness attacks would require a huge amount of spiritual consciousness power, which was why they would deliberately cultivate spiritual consciousness power.
However, using commoners' lives to cultivate their own consciousness and easily killing more than a hundred people, the number of people massacred far exceeded that of an ordinary cult!
Tan Xingbang continued, "Fortunately, my subordinate's strength wasn't weak. He forcefully escaped from the desert and came back to report the situation. The general in charge of the border immediately brought this person to the City Lord's Mansion and asked him to personally explain it to the City Lord's Mansion. However, what was surprising was that the City Lord didn't have any reaction. He simply said that he would investigate and sent my subordinate away! "
"In fact, the City Lord's Mansion didn't even send anyone to investigate. My subordinate understood that the City Lord's Mansion must have secretly colluded with this matter, so he reported this person to me. After I found out about this matter, I immediately reported it to the King and asked the King to exterminate all of the Spiritual God Cult's followers in the country. At the very least, they should be expelled from the country. After all, the Spiritual God Cult is one of the top ten religions in our Four River Kingdom. They have a huge influence! "
Lu An frowned and asked, "The Spiritual God Cult is so big. Has this matter not been discovered?"
"Indeed not." Tan Xingbang shook his head and said, "According to my investigation, they only accept commoners without strength, the poor, widowed, and slaves. No matter how many of these people died, no one would care and no one would riot because of this. Other than commoners, the Spiritual God Cult only accepts Heavenly Masters as members. These Heavenly Masters would undergo a collective 'Soul Refining Expiation' every month. After the 'Soul Refining Expiation', everyone would be so exhausted that they would fall into a deep sleep before slowly waking up. This is their so-called expiation process and they wouldn't die. "
Lu An's eyes narrowed. It seemed like the Spiritual God Cult didn't dare to be so ruthless outside of the borders. Otherwise, the continuous disappearance of thousands of people in a city would definitely cause a riot. As for the borders, it didn't matter if the poor and slaves died. The Emperor was far away, so the news wouldn't reach the King's ears.
"And then?" Lu An asked, "Did the King agree?"
"The King was very hesitant. After all, the Spiritual God Cult's influence is huge and involves over a dozen small and medium-sized countries. If he didn't have a sufficient reason to expel them, he was afraid that it would cause the Spiritual God Cult to retaliate." Tan Xingbang shook his head and said resentfully, "But the one who caused this matter to be suppressed was the Prime Minister! The Prime Minister strongly opposed this matter and said that the Spiritual God Cult was one of the few good cults and definitely wasn't a heretical cult! The Prime Minister even used himself to guarantee this cult and promised that nothing would happen to it! "
Lu An's eyes flickered. Indeed, the Prime Minister and the Spiritual God Cult were jackals of the same tribe.
"With the Prime Minister's guarantee, the King trusted the Prime Minister a lot and no longer cared about this matter." Tan Xingbang said, "But I didn't give up and have been secretly gathering evidence. But every time, I would be obstructed by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister even said that I was overstepping my authority and interfering in politics. He said that my duty was only to be in charge of border security and resisting foreign enemies. If I forcefully interfered in politics, it would be a rebellion! "
Lu An looked at Tan Xingbang's angry appearance. Although he wasn't an official, he knew the weight of the word 'rebellion'.
"The Prime Minister can speak ill of me in front of the King every day, causing it to be very difficult for me to even meet the King." Tan Xingbang said angrily, "I wanted to join forces with the other ministers to report this matter, but these ministers were not willing to help me. Some of them even turned the tables and joined forces with the Prime Minister to ostracize me! To be honest, they have been inciting the King to remove me from the position of Grand General. If it wasn't for my countless military achievements, I'm afraid that I would have been removed by them! "
Looking at Tan Xingbang's angry complaints, Lu An's pitch-black eyes clearly showed interest.
That's right, he was very interested in exterminating a heretical cult that cultivated the power of consciousness.
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