Clearly, Li Ruiyu is now somewhat easily frightened.
Don't underestimate Li Ruiyu. If it were any other situation or person, Li Ruiyu would never have this mindset. But the person he's facing now, his son-in-law, is not human. He possesses unimaginable strength, is invincible, and is extremely prone to anger and irritability.
However, Xu Zhengyang is not currently considering the issues that Li Ruiyu is worried about.
Xu Zhengyang pondered to himself, perhaps he really should think of a safer method to test whether, with the blessing of divine power, the divine soul could directly confront the advanced weapons researched and manufactured by humans? Could the powerful explosive force really kill or even destroy the gods?
If possible, how far will the impact be? These are questions that need to be clarified.
Xu Zhengyang has never been particularly clever or wise, but he has the shrewdness of a small businessman and is habitually prepared for unforeseen circumstances.
He wasn't sure if he would ever encounter a situation where he couldn't be sure of saving his life.
But if we let him try it himself...
It's not worth it. What if?
After much thought, Xu Zhengyang still couldn't come up with a sure thing, which troubled him quite a bit.
A group of four cars were traveling on the highway, and by around 8 p.m., they had arrived at the Xizhao Service Area near Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital. The cars pulled into the service area for a quick check, and the passengers were also allowed to get out and use the restroom.
Xu Zhengyang did not get out of the car; he remained seated inside with his eyes closed, as if he were half-asleep.
Just then, Li Haidong's voice came through his mind: "Sir, Guliya has died in Dongjing City, Japan..."
"How did she die?" Xu Zhengyang asked nonchalantly. If she died, she died. What would happen next was that she would continue to be tortured and beaten by the ghost messengers. He would just go to the underworld when he had time and throw her into hell to continue the punishment.
"Unable to bear the endless pain, he bit off his tongue and committed suicide. The Japanese side did not do their best to save him this time," Li Haidong replied.
Xu Zhengyang grunted in agreement, then said, "Alright, take her to the City God's Mansion and subject her to torture."
"Yes," Li Haidong replied and then withdrew the contact.
Xu Zhengyang opened his eyes. He had long since stopped caring about Guliya's matter; now, his worry was how to conduct experiments to determine whether he was superior to modern, advanced weaponry.
Li Ruiyu has returned, and the convoy has left the service area and continued northward.
Li Haidong's report had disrupted his thoughts, and he lit a cigarette, feeling somewhat annoyed.
"Zhengyang, is something on your mind?" Li Ruiyu asked.
"Hmm." Xu Zhengyang nodded and sighed casually, "People... why do they always have to fight each other? Sigh."
Li Ruiyu smiled wryly, unsure how to answer the question.
Xu Zhengyang didn't expect Li Ruiyu to answer. He smoked and looked out the car window at the completely dark sky, the night deep and dotted with stars.
A shooting star streaked across the night sky and disappeared into the distance in an instant.
Xu Zhengyang's eyes lit up, and he had an idea.
"Dad, I'm sorry to have troubled you," Xu Zhengyang said with a smile, sounding quite apologetic.
"Huh?" Li Ruiyu was taken aback, then shook his head with a wry smile and said, "What's so difficult about it? I never agreed to them in the first place, and they also said that they would ask for your opinion and wouldn't force you." Although he used the words "wouldn't force you," Li Ruiyu was actually thinking to himself, no one would dare to force you.
Xu Zhengyang waved his hand, exhaled a puff of smoke, and nodded as if he had made a difficult decision. He said, "Dad, I'll think about this again. I don't want to put you and Uncle in a difficult position."
"What?" Li Ruiyu's face immediately showed shock and a hint of joy. To him, Xu Zhengyang's willingness to consider it further was tantamount to a basic agreement, although he might have some requirements on certain details. The requirements were simple: as long as Xu Zhengyang agreed to conduct this practical demonstration, Li Ruiyu could agree to any of his requests, as long as they weren't too unreasonable.
"I'll think about it carefully once we get to the capital," Xu Zhengyang said with a smile. "It's not a big deal."
"Yes, yes, this is for your own good," Li Ruiyu quickly nodded and said.
Xu Zhengyang shook his head and emphasized, "It's to dispel some doubts and give a reminder."
Li Ruiyu paused, then nodded with a wry smile. He understood what Xu Zhengyang meant. This son-in-law was always so domineering… But then again, it wasn't that Xu Zhengyang was being unreasonable. In fact, Xu Zhengyang's words, "I don't want to put you and your second uncle in a difficult position," were already quite generous. To put it bluntly, if Li Ruiyu had such terrifying strength, he certainly wouldn't have bowed his head and let others bully him.
After a long while, Li Ruiyu finally couldn't contain his earlier worry and said again, "Zhengyang, other countries are investigating you..."
"Don't worry," Xu Zhengyang smiled and said, "They won't find anything out."
“What I mean is, don’t take any extreme actions, as that would escalate the conflict and be bad,” Li Ruiyu explained.
"Mm." Xu Zhengyang nodded.
Li Ruiyu didn't know what to say, although he was still... unsure.
...
Xu Zhengyang's reply finally relieved the high-ranking officials in Beijing who had been quite uneasy and unable to sleep, but at the same time, they also felt quite guilty and embarrassed.
Wouldn't this be considered judging a gentleman by the standards of a petty person?
Before receiving Xu Zhengyang's reply, several high-ranking officials occasionally felt a pang of regret. Was their suggestion and idea somewhat impulsive? What if they angered that young, hot-tempered deity? If he did something rash, who could do anything about it?
Wouldn't that be humiliating for them, given their status?
They didn't get angry or upset; they just calmly said, "I'll think about it." That's equivalent to agreeing.
Look at their magnanimity and broad-mindedness.
The leaders sitting in the meeting room looked at each other and gave each other wry smiles.
Sitting to the side, Li Ruiyu suddenly felt a surge of pride... for no apparent reason.
It was already past 11 p.m. at this point.
While Li Ruiyu and his team were discussing the next steps, Xu Zhengyang had just settled his wife and children down to sleep in the villa where Li Ruiyu lived in Jingshi Mountain District. Then he lay down on the bed, closed his eyes, and began to travel with his consciousness.
Guliya, who committed suicide by biting her tongue in Tokyo, Japan, did not receive any further medical treatment. The Japanese government is reportedly hoping for her demise; they would likely find a way to eliminate her even if she didn't commit suicide. For many countries, Guliya is now utterly useless, a mere, intractable obstacle.
The reason we couldn't kill her before was because it was a sensitive period, and we were afraid that she would be misunderstood and speculated about by foreign media and public opinion.
The storm has passed, so the sooner Guliya dies, the better for others to live in Ontario.
After Guliya's death, Li Haidong's city scroll immediately received the news. Although she died in Dongjing City, Japan, she was still registered in the artifact city scroll, and Li Haidong specifically highlighted her name as an important one, ordering the artifact city scroll to monitor her at all times.
Upon learning of Guliya's death, Li Haidong first informed Xu Zhengyang, and then used the city scroll to directly collect Guliya's ghost into the City God's Palace.
Inside the City God's Palace within the Divine Artifact City Scroll, Guliya lay battered and bruised, barely alive, her arms, legs, hands, and feet all strapped to her back, a pitiful sight. Sharp spikes pierced her soul constantly beneath her. The unbearable pain made her hate why humans became ghosts after death, why ghosts couldn't fall into a coma.
At the same time, Guliya felt deep remorse and wished she could find those innocent people she had indirectly killed and make them kowtow and serve as slaves to atone for her sins. She wanted to be tortured with branding irons, whips, chili water, and tiger benches to vent her anger, which would be better than enduring endless cruel torture like this.
The cell door creaked and groaned loudly.
Guliya shuddered. The sharp pain from the thorns piercing her body intensified, and she was filled with even greater fear.
To put it simply, if she were to stay in prison for another ten days or half a month, even without these spikes and without any torture, the mere sound of the cell door creaking open would trigger a conditioned reflex that would cause her unbearable pain.
This idea came from Wang Yonggan and was approved by the local magistrate, Xu Zhengyang.
Wang Yonggan was quite pleased with himself for this.
To commend his cleverness and wicked intentions, the local magistrate Xu Zhengyang bestowed upon Wang the title of "Brave," and Wang personally rolled around on the spiked floor several times, enjoying the wonder, insidiousness, cruelty, and inhumanity of his own creation.
Captain Su Peng of the Ghost Messengers entered first and announced in a deep voice, "The God of the Prefecture has arrived!"
In excruciating pain, Guliya groggily scrambled to her feet. Her arms and legs, which had just grown back into place, were once again pierced by sharp thorns, causing her to groan pitifully, unable to even let out a howl.
It's only been a few hours.
The local lord, Xu Zhengyang, stepped in, his entire body enveloped in golden light, exuding divine might.
Seeing Guliya's miserable appearance, Xu Zhengyang suddenly felt a pang of pity.
Well, of course, it wasn't out of pity for Guliya suffering such cruel torture, but rather because Xu Zhengyang felt that his arrangement might be too lenient on Guliya. What if the situation he didn't want to see really happened? Wouldn't that have allowed Guliya to completely escape her suffering?
Immediately putting that thought aside, Xu Zhengyang used his divine sense to remove all the nails from the cell, and then steadily walked to a stool on the side.
Wang Yonggan immediately stepped forward, wiped the stool with his sleeve, and then bowed to invite the adult to sit down.
"You can all go out now," Xu Zhengyang said, waving his hand after he sat down.
Su Peng and Wang Yonggan did not hesitate and immediately bowed and withdrew.
"Please, Your Excellency, spare my life! Forgive me! I truly regret it, I've changed, I'll never dare to do it again, I'll never dare to do it again..." Guliya knelt on the ground, looking pitiful and desperate, kowtowing repeatedly, her sobbing and wailing appearance truly pathetic.
Xu Zhengyang said slowly, "When Heaven is about to place a great responsibility on a person, it will first test their will, strain their muscles and bones, and starve their body... You can't be unaware of these words, can you?"
"Huh?" Guliya looked up blankly at the God of the State, who was shrouded in golden light.
"In a few days, I will choose a suitable location to bestow upon you the title of god. Hmm, how about the City God of Qimuluwu City?" Xu Zhengyang said calmly.
Guliya was completely bewildered, wondering what a City God was. After thinking it over, she quickly grasped the general meaning, but then became even more confused: why would they make me a god?
"Therefore, some suffering must be endured and tolerated... If you suffer such a little bit of hardship and then beg and cry like this, how can you be worthy of being the City God?"
"Ah? Yes, yes, I understand, I understand." Guliya quickly continued to kowtow, her heart filled with emotion and excitement, like a lonely orphan who had been wandering outside, starving and cold, suddenly finding his own father and mother.
Xu Zhengyang sat upright for a while and said, "Only by learning to endure and understanding all kinds of suffering can one become a god..."
"Yes, yes, yes..."
Guliya kept kowtowing until she was finally tired. She looked up, but the God of the State, shrouded in golden light, was nowhere to be seen.
After a long silence, Guliya suddenly began to look forward to the ghost messengers coming to punish her!
In another cell of the City God's Palace, Master Xuanyi, who had been subjected to cruel torture for nearly a month, continued to endure boundless pain. He saw no hope, no way to escape or alleviate the suffering; he could only continue to suffer and endure it.
This is the consequence of daring to impersonate a deity!
But today, he finally saw hope, and an extremely bright and blissful hope at that.
The provincial god came in person. Although he reprimanded him coldly, his words of advice and teachings made Master Xuanyi feel as if he were bathed in a spring breeze, and he seemed to have forgotten all the pain in his body.
I never imagined that gods really existed.
He never imagined that after enduring such boundless suffering, he would be made a god, and a high-ranking one at that, the City God of the Mountain City.
The reason is that he widely proclaimed the existence of gods during his lifetime, and he did indeed comprehend some divine principles.
As for why he was subjected to such cruel punishment, it was only to temper his will and make him more resolute.
Ah, what a wonderful and blissful thing!
So, after the city god disappeared into thin air, Master Xuanyi pleaded with the ghost messengers of the city god's mansion to hurry up and continue to punish him. The more cruel and severe the punishment, the better. He wanted to be tempered, he wanted to endure, and he wanted to make his will more resolute in the endless pain.
Come on, torture and abuse me to your heart's content!
Inside the City God's Mansion.
Chief Judge Li Haidong, the ghost captain Su Peng, and the ghost officers who had been responsible for administering punishments were all bewildered and frustrated.
What exactly did the God of the Prefecture say to these two serious criminals during his visit?
I've never heard of ghosts getting mental illnesses!
Could it be that excessive punishment can severely damage the consciousness of a ghost?