Outer Islands also possess their own Hell Ruler, just like the surrounding counties. Even though this place is a marginalized island, it still has a population of millions. Although the quality of the populace isn’t great, for the Divine Path Sect that pursues the power of faith, it’s not sothing they would completely abandon.
Currently, there are limited managent personnel, so we can only stabilize other areas of the West Sea first. Of course, the most fundantal elents must be present. The Hell Ruler controls the major matters of life, death, and reincarnation and is the most capable entity for establishing faith. How could this place possibly be overlooked?
Chen Qing rembered that in order to make people sign up, the City God of this Hell bureau even offered quite an attractive incentive. Not only could the term of service be extended, but more power of faith was allocated, and the award for lifespan was also double that of other places.
The downside is quite obvious, too. In such a forsaken place, it is impossible to engage with high-quality individuals and form karmic ties, showing a low ceiling. It’s only suitable for those diocre individuals who prefer to coast through life.
Finding such people in the vibrant Jiangnan of that ti was quite challenging. Chen Qing rembered that it took a full month to reluctantly find a middle-aged Scholar nad Goo Qing, who had decent capabilities but wasn’t particularly ambitious.
Due to the long distance, long-distance communication within the Divine Path Sect consus a significant amount of the power of faith. Normally, it’s enough for officials from the mortal realm to return every three years to report on their duties. Chen Qing would always be inford if any deity anointed by the Divine Path Sect dies, so he never thought anything would go wrong here.
However, it turned out sothing indeed did go wrong here.
Wei Gongcheng also felt that there was sothing off about the Hell Ruler here, his face imdiately showing a wary expression.
"Your Majesty..."
"Mm..." Chen Qing nodded, signaling Wei Gongcheng not to make a fuss. At this mont, they were on a rchant ship, not a warship. The elite troops of the Western Sea Army were mostly stationed in Yundu, and the soldiers left behind couldn’t even secure their own holand. Chen Qing had only brought a rchant ship, so it could be quite troubleso if there were forces on the island aiming to besiege them now.
Though this place is within his domain, the actual distance is probably even farther than from Jiangnan to Yundu, and there’s no support either. Going back would be quite troubleso.
According to the cliché of horror movies, now would be a good ti to turn around and leave instead of curiously proceeding further, often leading to a tragic end. However, Chen Qing hesitated for a while but then continued forward.
He dared to take such action because he had his reasons. He trusts his own setup.
This world was designed by him; within the current ti fra, the power he holds in his hands is invincible, or at least at the very top. He doesn’t believe that a group of Westerners could truly challenge his authority within half a year of their arrival.
Accompanied by Wei Gongcheng, the two followed a troop disguised as a rchant group, slowly walking into the interior of the island.
The island is very primitive; even the docks are quite rudintary. The local ecology here is exceedingly favorable; ordinary fishern don’t even need to go out to sea to fish. Around the shallow waters of the island, they can catch plenty of fish, and with fertile land onshore, there’s no chance to develop mariti power similar to other island nations.
Passing through, they only saw a few locals fishing or collecting shells and pearls on the beach.
Mostly, those incapable of heavy labor were won. On such a resource-rich island, ambitious n wouldn’t rely on gathering seafood for a living.
Confronted with these strangers, the won on the island kept their distance. Even though there were stationed troops, the islanders still felt alienated from people from the Central Plains.
"Your Majesty... the people here seem quite normal." After walking dozens of miles, even through the sparsely populated land, they saw quite a few natives. These locals, who suspiciously resembled Western faces, were evidently thriving on this prosperous land, exhibiting curiosity and fear towards them but nothing noticeably abnormal, no different from the first ti they ca.
"Where are the stationed troops?" Chen Qing asked, frowning.
It seems the sealing of the Hell Ruler didn’t cause any major disturbances. Asking these ordinary islanders would surely yield no information; they could only hope that there were survivors among the troops.
"Just over there..." Wei Gongcheng pointed to a newly built watchtower.
That purely stone and steel structure was obviously not sothing the native islanders could achieve.
Suppressing the anxiety in his heart, Chen Qing began walking towards that location at a normal human pace; they were still a kiloter away when soone in the distance called out, "Who goes there?"
In pure Central Plains dialect, even with the accent of Qi, both Chen Qing and Wei Gongcheng felt sowhat relieved. They both sensed the familiar fluctuations of the power of faith, clearly from the Western Sea Army under Tian Heng’s command.
Without explaining, Chen Qing rely displayed a bit of his power of faith. The person above imdiately recognized Chen Qing and hurried down from the watchtower, stopping about ten ters from Chen Qing and bowing deeply: "Your Majesty!"
"No need for such formalities, let’s talk inside." With a gentle lift of his hand, an invisible force pulled the man up.
The structure inside the watchtower was excellent, and it even had Ice Jade for cooling. Honestly, this place looks cheap, but it’s actually a very relaxed and laid-back job.
With a good allowance, there wasn’t much to do, and the environnt was nice every day. Chen Qing even saw a few explosively curvaceous Caucasian won inside the watchtower. In a rush, a few soldiers who couldn’t hide in ti quickly knelt down to plead for forgiveness, causing those won to beco uneasy as well.
Chen Qing waved his hand: "Let them go out first, I have sothing to ask you."
Only then did the soldiers breathe a sigh of relief and hurriedly escorted the won out in a flustered manner.
Wei Gongcheng frowned tightly: "Tian Heng’s military discipline is strict, and the troops stationed on the islands of Japan that I have visited are all well-disciplined. It seems that this place is too relaxed because it is too far away..."
"It doesn’t matter..." Chen Qing didn’t mind. This place wasn’t a focus anyway, and the troops were just stationed here for show. Besides, those soldiers didn’t make trouble, what’s the harm in finding a few local won?
In his era, even those who went to North Africa to work would find a few local won; compared to the locals, the stationed soldiers were stronger and wealthier, naturally making them the pursuit of many won. Holding back their hormones would be the real surprise.
"My Lord... Those won have nothing to do with us..." the returning soldiers hurriedly explained. "They co to harass us every day, and we couldn’t really drive away these weak won rudely..."
"Alright, the Lord isn’t interested in your trifles." Wei Gongcheng cut them off directly: "I’m asking you about sothing serious. Have there been any abnormal events happening on this island over the past half a year?"
"Abnormal events?" The soldiers looked at each other, sowhat confused.
What could be abnormal on such a remote island?
Other than occasional Sea Monsters landing on the island, they were so bored most of the ti, they felt like wealthy old n with nothing to do.
Seeing their puzzled expressions, Chen Qing and Wei Gongcheng frowned at once, as it seed these soldiers had no clue about the incident here.
"Is the Hell Ruler functioning normally here?" Wei Gongcheng asked inconspicuously.
"Yes..." one of the soldiers said: "The Witch Doctor of the Yiluo Tribe passed away two months ago, and they invited us to a al. We also chatted with the Night Traveling God who ca to collect his soul; there was no problem. My Lord, why do you ask this so suddenly?"
"Two months?" Wei Gongcheng was stunned: "Only one person has died in these two entire months?"
Back in Lyuzhou, new souls enter Hell every day. Is the workload here too light?
The soldiers were taken aback. What was the aning behind this official’s words? Was he complaining that not enough people were dying?
"My Lord, this place is vast and sparsely populated. We are stationed only around a few large tribes, and the distance between each tribe is farther than that between the counties in Jiangnan. Normally, unless soone dies within the sa tribe, we wouldn’t travel so far to the next one. As for whether people in other tribes have died or not, you’d have to ask the troops stationed there. We don’t even see each other once a month."
"I see..." Chen Qing tapped his head, feeling a bit troubled.
The population distribution was too sparse in this place, and with plentiful resources, it was likely there was little interaction between the tribes, which resembled being spoon-fed by the heavens, hence the very loose connections and probably fragnted intelligence.
"Such loose distances must make it difficult for the Wandering Gods to work, right?" Chen Qing asked.
"Isn’t it? Cough... My Lord is wise." The soldier quickly said, "The intervals between these tribes are too vast, and here in Hell, there is a severe shortage of staff. There’s only one Day Traveling God and one Night Traveling God. Frequently, when soone dies, they have to search for several days. There’s only one City God Temple on this island, unlike the major cities in Lyuzhou which have several Hell exits, causing those two godly brothers to rush around almost every day."
"But speaking of strange happenings... there indeed might be one."
"Oh?" Chen Qing looked at the hesitant soldier and reassured him with a smile: "It’s okay, whatever it is, just speak up. Even if it’s mistaken, it doesn’t matter."
"Thank you, My Lord..." the soldier sighed in relief, but still said, "Recently, there have been several very strange patients."
"Patients?"
"Yes, those who are dying... Initially, many local witch doctors had said they were beyond help and could prepare for their end. But for so reason, these patients just won’t pass away. For a month now, they haven’t died yet, causing those witch doctors to find it odd, because so patients, severely ill and haven’t had water for half a month, are sohow still alive. It really is bizarre, and we don’t understand what’s happening. We can only wait to ask the Wandering Gods when they arrive, but we don’t know how to contact them, so we can only wait..."
"Half a month without water and they’re still not dying?" Chen Qing’s pupils constricted, considering a possibility: "Take to see them!"
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