Top-Tier Perception Starts From Basic Fist Techniques

In an effort to keep his life, Li Zong screamed his terms out wildly, "No! Flesh and Blood Progenitor, I consent! Let the Temple of Flesh and Blood be the state religion of the Jing Dynasty! Stop, stop now! I will help you spread it. I am a demon god, and I know a great many of the demon race's secrets..."

However, it was too late. Lu Changsheng knew a demon god was not a thing he could ever hold control over, and what couldn't be controlled gets killed. The tide was running his way in any case, so a demon god was of no further use to him.

After all, he would only get in the temple's way.

Six tenths... Seven... Eight... Nine. In the end, every scrap of Li Zong's flesh was devoured, and his aura went out entirely.

A mighty demon god and a mighty ancient demon, the pillar that held the whole Jing Dynasty steady, had died in front of every watching eye with nothing but frustration. The other greater demons and demon kings did not dare take so much as a step closer.

"He is dead..."

"Lord demon god is dead? How... how is that possible?"

"He is really dead. The demon god's aura has gone out completely..."

"Lord demon god was an ancient demon. An ancient demon who had lived several thousand years..."

Huge waves went through the hearts of the greater demons and demon kings of the ministry. A demon god was very nearly a legend. Every one of them had received some kindness from Li Zong at one time or another, and it was Li Zong who had stepped in and helped the human nature in them hold down the demon nature.

They all knew how old Li Zong was. He was old enough that he had already been an ancient demon before the Jing Dynasty was founded. A demon god that terrifying, who had been alive for several thousand years and called immortal, was now dead. He had died in the hands of the Flesh and Blood Progenitor, and not one demon king or greater demon dared make a careless move. They fell as silent as cicadas in the cold.

Lu Changsheng glanced over the half-demons of the ministry and said calmly, "Every half-demon in the Demon God Ministry is to keep to his own duties and leave none of them without permission. Everything continues as it did."

Then, his eyes came to rest on one of the demon kings. "Come, take me to your treasury."

The demon king drew a deep breath and did not dare refuse. A man who could kill a demon god would hardly be troubled by a mere demon king, so he brought Lu Changsheng into the depths of the ministry and down to the treasury.

"Nearly everything of value the ministry holds is in the treasury," the demon king said.

Lu Changsheng nodded. "Open it."

The treasury door slowly swung open.

A great many fragrances reached him at once, and he recognized them immediately. Demon plants! The scent of demon plants of every kind! He followed the smell and soon found a dazzling spread of demon plants of every description in huge amounts.

Lu Changsheng sensed something wrong immediately. "Wait, this isn't right. How does the ministry have this many demon plants? However deep the ministry's reserves run, it could not possibly hold this many. Tell me what is actually going on here."

There were far too many of them in the vault, and a practiced eye could see at a glance that some had been picked recently. Were demon plants not found only in the demon nation? A single one reaching the outside world was rare and hard to come by, and here was a vault holding a good many that had been cut not long ago. Something was not normal about it.

As expected, the demon king respectfully answered, "Lord demon god grew these himself. The story is that he brought soil back from the demon nation long ago, soil that demon plants can grow in. It is called demon soil. He has been raising demon plants in secret ever since, which is why the treasury holds so many of them."

Lu Changsheng's eyes lit. Cultivating demon plants? With demon soil on hand as well? What a piece of luck he had stumbled upon!

"Take me to see this demon soil!"

He swept up every demon plant in the treasury in one motion, and the demon king led him out to a small herb garden behind the ministry. That little garden was the demon soil, the place where the demon god had raised his plants.

Lu Changsheng carefully sensed the demon soil. There was genuinely a current of demon power stored inside that soil, and it was very easy to tell apart from ordinary earth. The garden was only a small patch, though. It was very little demon soil.

The plants raised in it needed several years to ripen at the least, and more often several decades, or even a hundred years. If Lu Changsheng had hoped to put this patch to quick use, he was going to be disappointed.

"Doesn't matter. The treasury has built up enough demon plants to carry my training a long way."

He was not too badly disappointed. This was only the ministry's treasury, after all. What about the palace treasury? Lu Changsheng did not believe for a moment that the palace had no demon plants in it. There would certainly be some.

The demon god is settled, so the palace is next. Once I take over the palace, I can call the temple's people into the capital, and the conversion can start from there.

The plan was already fixed in his mind.

Converting blood descendants held no interest for him since doing it himself would have worked him into the ground. The temple's blood descendants were there to do it for him. All Lu Changsheng needed to do was take hold of the palace and the capital.

With the Flesh and Blood Progenitor sitting in the palace and in the capital, the Jing Dynasty would not fall into disorder. Any small maneuver anyone attempted would be put down without mercy so that the conversion of the whole dynasty could go forward without the slightest risk of failure.

Three months went by in no time. During this time, Chen Ping and the rest had reached the capital, bringing the bulk of the temple's blood descendants with them. The whole of the capital sat very nearly in the temple's hands.

The royals and nobles had been converted in the first wave, and the ordinary people of the capital were converted after them in good order. The benefits of converting were simply enormous, and the effect showed the moment they converted, so the work met with very little resistance.

At most, there would sometimes be a small wave of resistance, but sending out the temple guard force put that down readily enough. With that, Lu Changsheng trained in peace in a sealed chamber of the palace for the whole three months.

Swish!

Lu Changsheng's eyes opened, and he called up the Status Panel. Light flashed in front of him.

[Status Panel]

Host: Lu Changsheng

Title: Flesh and Blood Progenitor

Flesh and Blood Martial Dao: Fifth Growth (16%)

Three months of hard training with a great many demon plants behind it and not the least intention of rationing them had run his progress at an average of five percent a month. His progress in Fifth Growth now stood at sixteen percent.

At that rate, a little over a year more might be enough for him to achieve Sixth Growth, which was the Nascent Soul and Martial Saint Realm. That needed a great many demon plants, of course. Without them, his Flesh and Blood Martial Dao came very nearly to a standstill.

Just then, the emperor's voice came from outside the chamber. "Progenitor, I have a matter to report."

Lu Changsheng threw the chamber open and let him in. "Speak."

The emperor looked a great deal younger. He was bright and full of spirit with a healthy glow on him. He spoke respectfully. "Progenitor, the Chen Dynasty, the Han Dynasty, the Yu Dynasty, and others have all been sending envoys to ask about the blood descendants.

“How should the Jing Dynasty answer them? I would ask for your instruction."

He was an emperor and the most exalted man in the realm. However, in a world of transcendents, the truly exalted were the ones holding transcendent power. An emperor amounted to nothing more than a tool in someone's hand.

The emperor saw his own position clearly and gave the work everything he had. On such matters, he was very careful and had arrived in person to report it for the Flesh and Blood Progenitor to decide.

"Oh? The information is traveling well. Hold nothing back. Every benefit of being a blood descendant may be disclosed to the envoys. If it can be managed, send a party of blood descendants back with them and convert the princes and high ministers of those dynasties.

“Remember what your task is. Spread the Temple of Flesh and Blood by all means available and at any cost to get as many people as possible to be converted." Lu Changsheng set out each instruction in turn.