Chapter 317. Xiao Gang's Great Purge (Part 1)
"That's right, we must fight to the end." Xue Qinghe said, "Then what are your plans, Lord Xiao Gang?"
Yu Xiaogang said, "First, we must clean up the bureaucratic system of the Heaven Dou Empire that dares to associate with the Spirit Hall, and eliminate them one by one. Only by ensuring the healthy operation of our bureaucratic system can we deal with the peasant uprising and completely dismantle the Spirit Hall's conspiracy to incite the peasants to resist the Heaven Dou Empire."
Xue Qinghe nodded and said, "You really have a way, Grand Tutor. How about this, I have decided to establish a secret search and law enforcement agency, named Blood Prison, and you, Yu Xiaogang, will be in charge of it." As he spoke, Xue Qinghe told Yu Xiaogang his idea, and Yu Xiaogang's eyes lit up immediately upon hearing Xue Qinghe's idea.
"Your Majesty's brilliant idea is truly a blessing for the Heaven Dou Empire."
Thus, Yu Xiaogang went to execute Xue Qinghe's Blood Prison Plan. Blood Prison was a newly established organization within the Heaven Dou Empire, bypassing the empire's existing law enforcement agencies and establishing a separate agency.
This agency was directly loyal to His Majesty Xue Qinghe, encompassing intelligence gathering, secret arrests, and prisons.
Yu Xiaogang became its leader, selecting personnel from the highly loyal military.
Once these individuals were in charge, Blood Prison began operating. Within a month, over a thousand people from the Heaven Dou Empire were secretly arrested and imprisoned for alleged ties with the Spirit Hall. Three months later, Blood Prison spread throughout the country, arresting large numbers of people, causing widespread panic within the Heaven Dou Empire. One day, Blood Prison delivered intelligence. Yu Xiaogang was stunned when he saw the name of an official mentioned in the intelligence.
"Governor Yang Kang of the Mister Province, how could this thick-browed, big-eyed fellow also betray the Heaven Dou Empire and collude with the Spirit Hall?" Yu Xiaogang asked in surprise.
Yang Kang, within the Heaven Dou Empire, was one of the few staunch royalists and anti-Spirit Hall supporters, harboring extreme hatred for the Spirit Hall and even uttering numerous outrageous statements.
These included: the Heaven Dou Empire should expel the Spirit Hall forces from its borders to ensure its rule; the Heaven Dou Empire should eradicate all Spirit Halls within its borders, abolish the free Spirit Awakening mechanism, and deem commoners unworthy of possessing Spirits; nobles should exclusively possess Spirits, and the Spirit Hall's free Spirit Awakening assistance to commoners was a challenge to the traditional ancestral system of the Douluo Continent; and making commoners live a life of misery was the essence of political success.
Yu Xiaogang deeply admired and respected such lofty beliefs and unwavering anti-Spirit Hall stance. He believed that if all nobles on the Douluo Continent shared this view, the Spirit Hall wouldn't be so rampant, and commoner Spirit Masters wouldn't have risen to become its henchmen.
But this man, with his thick eyebrows and big eyes, had actually betrayed his own beliefs.
Colluding with the Spirit Hall, accepting bribes from the Spirit Hall, and plotting to instigate rebellions among officials within the Heaven Dou Empire—these were things Yu Xiaogang could still tolerate, saying he would observe and deal with them.
But the next piece of evidence was intolerable to Yu Xiaogang.
He had plotted to assassinate Yu Xiaogang, the Heaven Dou Empire's Grand Preceptor!
"Grand Preceptor, should we still arrest Governor Yang Kang?" the Blood Prison Guard asked.
Yu Xiaogang snapped out of his daze and said, "Arrest him. This is irrefutable evidence. He must be taken down. Guys like him, who disguise themselves as staunch anti-Spirit Hall figures but sabotage our anti-Spirit Hall alliance, are far more dangerous."
"Yes, Grand Preceptor."
A few days later, Yang Kang was arrested and imprisoned in the Blood Prison.
"Injustice! This is an injustice!"
"This is a frame-up!"
"I did not betray the Heaven Dou Empire!"
After being arrested, Yang Kang repeatedly protested his innocence, but after enduring the torture of the tiger bench, chili water, and branding irons in the Blood Prison, Yang Kang confessed to his crimes and also revealed the identities of his entire gang.
The Yang Kang case implicated a series of feudal nobles in the Heaven Dou Empire who were plotting a rebellion. Yu Xiaogang ordered their arrest and imprisonment in the Blood Prison. Those who dared to implicate Yu Xiaogang in the details of the plot were simply vanished.
Yu Xiaogang's actions resulted in a massive reduction in the number of officials in the Heaven Dou Empire's administrative bureaucracy. Many feudal lords who had colluded with the Spirit Hall were arrested and imprisoned in the Blood Prison, creating a shortage of administrative personnel within the Heaven Dou Empire.
However, Xue Qinghe was prepared. After Yu Xiaogang arrested these traitors, Xue Qinghe immediately promoted a group of patriotic and loyal individuals to fill the vacancies. After Yu Xiaogang's bloody and terrifying purge, the political landscape of the Heaven Dou Empire became peaceful and harmonious, no longer as chaotic as before.
As the main contributor to this great purge, Yu Xiaogang was awarded five medals by Xue Qinghe: the Heaven Dou Knight Medal, the Heaven Dou Honor Medal, the Heaven Dou Unity Medal, the Heaven Dou Wisdom Medal, and the Heaven Dou Second-Class Hero Medal!
Unlike Dai Tianfeng's reign of terror, after purging internal dissidents and eliminating the influence of the Spirit Hall, Xue Qinghe immediately set about strengthening public opinion within the Heaven Dou Empire, launching a propaganda war against the Spirit Hall within the empire. Meanwhile, due to his tarnished reputation, Xue Qinghe had to force Prince Xue Xing to retire early, temporarily allowing him to live the life of a wealthy landowner in his own territory.
Throughout the Douluo Continent, although the Heaven Dou Empire experienced internal turmoil, its overall strength was not significantly diminished. The Star Luo Empire, however, was embroiled in civil war due to its coexistence with the Republic of Asdeka and Dai Tianfeng's reign of terror, its national power weakening repeatedly.
To ensure the strength of the anti-Spirit Hall forces, Ning Fengzhi had no choice but to dispatch the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School and the Clear Sky School into the Star Luo Empire to assist Dai Tianfeng in quelling the internal rebellion. While the Spirit Hall, the Star Luo Empire, and the Heaven Dou Empire hadn't formally declared war, they were already effectively at war. The reason they hadn't officially declared it was that both sides were waiting for an opportune moment.
All intelligence indicated that Qian Renxue within the Spirit Hall was undergoing the Angel God's inheritance, and Qian Xunji had left the Pope's position and disappeared. Ning Fengzhi speculated that Qian Xunji was also undergoing part of the Angel God's trial; although he might not ultimately become a god, he still posed a significant threat.
The anti-Spirit Hall alliance was also waiting for Tang San's return as a god. Tang San's godhood was the only hope for all the anti-Spirit Hall forces, feudal lords, and soul master families on the continent.
Despite the Spirit Hall's rampant actions, they chose to endure and wait. Once Tang San returned as a god, it would be their time to launch an attack on the Spirit Hall.
Two flowers bloom, each telling a different story.
In the advanced spacetime meditation room, Qian Xunji broke through the bottleneck and officially advanced to God King.
Having ascended to the position of God-King of Chaos, Qian Xunji now possesses the ability to rival the God Realm. Even against the God of Asura, he could defeat him without the Binding God Lock.
However, this wasn't enough. Qian Xunji took out the Dragon God's essence and spent time refining it, completely absorbing the essence before refining the Dragon God's core.
Now, Qian Xunji had become a God-King with two divine positions.
However, Tang San's God-King position was that of the Sea God and the God of Asura, one a Level One God and the other a God-King. Qian Xunji, on the other hand, held two God-King positions.
In this era, Qian Xunji was invincible, capable of overturning tables. However, Qian Xunji's true enemy was never Tang San of this era, but rather the Tang family of tens of thousands of years later. Qian Xunji couldn't accurately assess the strength of the Tang family tens of thousands of years later, but without absolute certainty, he couldn't easily defeat Tang San of this era.
When Qian Xunji emerged from the meditation room, the God of Asura seemed to perceive a glimmer of light in the darkness.
"Great Pope, you've finally returned!" the Asura God said humbly.
Qian Xunji was stunned. He looked at the Asura God in surprise. What was wrong with the Asura God today? Had he lost his mind?
If it weren't for the system notification that the Asura God's hatred was constantly escalating, Qian Xunji would have thought the Asura God had Stockholm Syndrome.
Qian Xunji decided to see what the Asura God was up to.
"Asura God, why have you changed your ways today?"
The Asura God, hanging upside down, said with a guilty look, "These past few days, after you captured me, I've thought a lot. I was wrong. Tang San isn't even human. I don't know what came over me; I acted impulsively and chose him as my successor. Thanks to you, you corrected my mistake in time."
"And then?" Qian Xunji asked.
"Your Holiness, I, the Asura God, am willing to pledge my allegiance to you," the Asura God said humbly.
During this time, seeing Titan constantly wailing in the cycle of reincarnation and annihilation, unable to live or die, the Asura God was afraid. He no longer cared about the future of his precious child. Now, the Asura God's only thought was to quickly please Qian Xunji, find an opportunity to run away, and the farther away from this demon Qian Xunji, the more carefree he would be.
On the other side, Titan, enduring the pain of his soul being burned, said to Qian Xunji, "Your Holiness, please, spare me. This old servant is willing to be your lackey for all eternity."
Qian Xunji chuckled evilly and said to Titan, "Hehehe, you want to be my dog? You are not worthy. You'd better stay obediently in that ball of fire."
"No—" Titan's soul was annihilated once again, and then reborn.
(End of this chapter)