Chapter 408: Inside and Outside the Tao

  Everyone has their own beliefs, and the residents of Blood Prison are no exception.

  This day is September 25th, 2013.

  Every year at this time is the day of worship for the Blood God.

  Hurriedly following Blue Grandfather's footsteps, they arrived at the center of the village. At this time, a considerable number of villagers had already gathered. They surrounded the iron stage, prostrating themselves on the ground, praying very devoutly.

  On the iron pedestal, a statue cast from fine steel stood steadily there, its movements and facial expressions carved vividly to life. Its body was slender, with a huge scythe on its back. Its face was ferocious like a fierce ghost, looking like a very dark deity, yet it was the creator of the Blood Hell!

  Lan Ye said that this Blood God statue has a history of over a thousand years in the Blood Prison.

  "Just made it!" He wiped the sweat, didn't have time to explain more, and immediately boarded the iron platform. With a strange and devout prayer gesture, facing the crowd, he gently closed his eyes, while moving his lips.

  "Today is the day of the great Blood God's creation of the Blood Prison, it was he who nurtured us, protected us and allowed our Shura Village to settle here. He gave us life, air, light and everything. He protected us from evil invasion, generation after generation in peace. Everyone, let us bow down together to the Blood God!"

  "God of ten thousand bloodlines, Lord of Asura, accept our obeisance!"

  All villagers pray together.

  The entire ceremony was proceeding in an orderly manner under Lán Yé's command.

  The villagers crouched on the ground, with no one daring to stand up and speak out or do anything else. They thought that any behavior disrespectful to the gods would be condemned.

  As the ancient worship ceremony proceeds, one by one, villagers loudly proclaim their wishes and repeatedly kowtow. Praying for children, praying for marriage, praying for peace, praying for a good harvest, each plea is filled with boundless reverence for the Blood God!

  Half an hour later, the worship came to an end. The villagers stood up one after another, with the beastly smell of their animal skin clothes mixed with the earthy smell on the ground, forming a flavor that was hard to describe in words.

  This is the taste of Blood Prison.

  Zhuo Yifan looked at the statue with a calm face, but his heart was boiling.

  He wasn't sure if it was this Blood God guy who created the world, and he didn't want to know.

  He just wants to understand when he can become a strong man admired by others. What is his own Tao heart after all? Where is the Blood Prison after all? The secret of the Devil's Eye, the secret of the Iron Arm, the secret of the Soul, the secret of Meditation...

  There were too many unknown things swirling in Zhuo Yifan's mind. He felt a great deal of turmoil in his heart, an unusual kind of turmoil.

  "How can you be so disrespectful to the Blood God!" This was Zhou Qing's voice. From the beginning, he had been observing Zhuo Yifan.

  Zhou Qing's words resonated with the rest of the villagers, and one by one, they shot fierce and indignant glances at Zhuo Yifan.

  "Kneel down, you son of a bitch! Who is he to me? Should I kowtow to him?" Leishi immediately got angry, his fist clenched, and the bones made a cracking sound. The villagers were all startled, completely not expecting this outsider to be so overbearing.

  Lan Ye coughed lightly and did not express any opinion on this matter. He intended to see how Zhuo Yifan would react.

  "Whose child is this? How dare you be so disrespectful to the Blood God?"

  "Hmph, aren't they just newcomers from the outside world? If it weren't for the village chief taking pity on them and accepting them, they would have been eaten by spirit beasts long ago!" Zhou Qing said with no qualms, speaking sinisterly: "People from the outside world are not born and raised in our Shura Village, they will definitely bring trouble! Everyone can think back to that beast tide ten years ago!"

  Bringing up old affairs of Zhou Qing, suddenly made everyone fearful, wasn't the beast tide ten years ago caused by outsiders provoking a group of spiritual beasts? At that time, many people died in Shura Village.

  A sturdy man could no longer hold back, thinking of the miserable situation when his wife died ten years ago, suddenly bursting into flames and shouting loudly: "Disrespect to the Blood God, drive them out! Otherwise, it will definitely bring disaster to the village!"

  "Drive him away!" Zhou Qing continued to add fuel to the fire!

  "Drive these outsiders away!" The villagers, stirred up by Zhou Qing, stood up with a rustling sound from the ground, their eyes burning with anger, and Zhuo Yifan even smelled the murderous intent that was about to erupt in the village.

  "Hum! This is my guest, who wants to drive him away?" Lan Shuang'er suddenly became furious, with her hands on her hips and a puffed up face, glaring at Zhou Qing: "Zhou Qing, I advise you not to add fuel to the fire! You're really shameless! Bringing up old matters again, doing this will only make me hate you more!"

  "Little brother! Have you forgotten? Your parents are also dead..."

  Crack! Zhou Qing hadn't finished speaking when a loud slap rang out. Little loli Lan Shuang'er had thoroughly enraged Zhou Qing!

  "Second sister!" Zhou Qing's face turned red with rage as he covered his face, feeling extremely wronged.

  "...I don't want to see you again." After slapping her, Blue's face turned very gloomy, and she didn't look at Zhou Qing again.

  So that all around the crows and sparrows are silent, but can clearly hear the sound of anger surging in everyone's heart.

  The tense atmosphere didn't make Zhuo Yifan feel uneasy, he walked up to the iron platform with a smile and came to Lanye's side, "Lanye, can I say a few words?"

  That's a place where only the village chief can stand, and even then, only on the day of worship for the Blood God. This outsider is quite bold, isn't he? Doesn't he fear the wrath of the Blood God?

  Lan Ye rolled his eyes and nodded, deliberately saying: "Of course! The Blood God will listen to everyone's wishes."

  After finishing speaking, Lan Ran also retreated to one side, leaving Zhuo Yifan alone on the iron platform.

  Zhuo Yifan glanced around at the villagers, then said loudly: "Here I must make one thing clear, I am not a person from Xiuluo Village, and at the same time, I am not a believer in the Blood God. Everyone has their own beliefs. I have always been loyal to the gods I believe in, and apart from them, no one can make my knees bend."

  "This is a blood prison, the world of the Blood God. You must show respect to the Blood God, or you will surely suffer heavenly punishment!" a villager shouted.

  "Then do you respect the Blood God?"

  "Khun Deity is our believer and we certainly respect him." A villager stood up.

  Zhuo Yifan nodded slightly and continued: "The Blood God created this world, gave you life, allowed you to be tempered, and possessed the ability and skills to survive. You are loyal to the Blood God and follow the Blood God. Living in Shura Village, I now want to hear, is there anyone who can say what Shura means?"

  This sentence stunned everyone, because no one would have thought of this name.

  The villagers shook their heads, some of them looked at Lanye with a bewildered expression. Lanye also shook his head, looking at Zhuo Yifan with an odd gaze, twirling his white beard, seemingly deep in thought.

  In just a few words, Zhuo Yifan led everyone into a dead end. He paused for a moment, shook his head and said, "It seems that none of the villagers in Shura Village know the meaning of the Blood God, so they were forever sealed in this forest by the Blood God. In other words, you are all very disrespectful to the Blood God!"

  "You... nonsense!" A villager was furious.

  "Am I talking nonsense?" Zhuo Yifan laughed, "Since it was the Blood God who gave you life, the Blood God who gave you thoughts, and also the Blood God who gave this village its name. And yet, no one knows the meaning behind it?"

  The villagers were stunned, exchanging glances with each other, but no one could express the meaning behind it. They simply took Shura as an ordinary name.

  "A group of foolish followers! A group of selfish and timid cowards, you have blasphemed the Blood God from the start, blaspheming the Blood God's promise to you. You pray to the gods every day but do nothing, this is not only an insult to the Blood God, but also an insult to Shura! You are not worthy of being Shura, the village of Shura should change its name, I think it would be better to call it Fool Village." Zuo Yifan shouted.

  "The villagers, faced with Zhuo Yifan's outburst, all fell silent. Some extremely superstitious villagers even closed their eyes, as if praying for the Blood God's forgiveness."

  "We all don't know what Asura means, and you, an outsider, understand it?"

  It was still Zhou Qing who spoke, snatching his own woman and shouting on his own turf. This kid was really too arrogant! He turned around with a burning rage, looking at the group of villagers, no longer caring about Lan Shuang'er's feelings, and shouted violently: "Kill this bastard who desecrated the Blood God!"

  "Fools! You are the blasphemers!"

  Zhuo Yi Fan suddenly jumped in front of Zhou Qing, Zhou Qing was stunned, shocked and stiffened, suddenly feeling his hair standing on end, a sharp and almost suffocating sense of oppression, weighing heavily on his heart.

  He was just a cultivator of the Refining Body stage, how could he withstand the effects of the "Eye of Fear"?

  Ah! Suddenly, he was like a madman, clutching his hair and wailing continuously, his pale face frozen in place, motionless.

  "This is the punishment of the Blood God for you. The Blood God sent me to explain to you foolish followers the meaning of Shura!"

  Zhuo Yifan ignored Zhou Qing and glared at everyone, his appearance was so real, a true acting master: "Do you know what Shura is? Shura is the synonym for great gods who are good at fighting, strong, and unyielding! Constantly breaking through limits, striving to pursue their own goals. And you, are willing to stay in this cage forever? Hmph... it's simply ridiculous!"

  "Heavens! The Blood God has indeed given us such great expectations." The villagers all began discussing it.

  It wasn't until much later that Zhou Qing finally came back to himself.

  "What just happened to me?!"

  A moment later, Zhou Qing also came to his senses. He was terrified by Zhuo Yifan and even temporarily forgot what had just happened. All he felt was a flash of eerie purple light in front of him, and the whole person immediately fell into terror, unable to control himself!

  But what made Zhou Qing angry was that Zhuo Yifan actually embarrassed him! Embarrassed him in front of Shuang Er!

  He couldn't help but rage in his heart: "Who is he?! Why did he take away my and Shuang'er's feelings the first time he came to the village?! I must kill him!"

  Lan Shuang'er was not enthusiastic about him, but she didn't hate him to this extent either. Moreover, she even slapped herself! This was something Zhou Qing could never tolerate! At that moment, he made up his mind and vowed to make Zhuo Yifan disappear no matter what!

  "This is the guidance of the Blood God!"

  At this time, the villagers shouted one by one and crawled on the ground again.

  The Blood God's worship day had never been out of control since its inception. One by one, the villagers went crazy and kowtowed to the statue, kowtowing to Zhuo Yifan. No matter how much Zhou Qing shouted, no one listened to him, he was about to explode with anger!

  "Zhuo Yifan, I will never give up on you!" Zhou Qing shouted loudly, staring fiercely at the man on the iron platform before storming off.

  Seeing Zhou Qingyuan leave, Zhuo Yifan probably guessed what he was going to do, which was nothing more than asking someone to come and teach him a lesson. However, he didn't take it to heart and continued to say: "Let's uncover past events and rediscover ourselves!"

  It's also necessary to consider the situation, and Zhuo Yifan had determined that this group of lost sheep were superstitious, so he came up with this plan. However, it has to be said that for the first time being a big scammer, the feeling is still pretty good.

  "Blood God, mighty and powerful!" With the shout, everyone knelt down.

  "Is this Zhāo Liè's son? This little guy is quite interesting..." Lán Rǎn gazed at the scene, narrowing her eyes slightly, a hint of a smile playing on her lips, and she actually looked forward to seeing how this young man would grow up.