Chapter 523: The story of the crows
In the morning, when Ling Ping’an woke up, he found that his phone was already in battery saver mode.
He picked it up and saw that there was only one bar left.
He quickly took out a charger and started charging.
Meow!
The kitten who had been sleeping next to his bed called out obediently as per usual, as if to say good morning.
Ling Ping’an smiled and held the little fellow in his arms. “Good morning, Bastet!”
Looking at the time, it was still very early, not even 8 a.m.
He casually picked up the remote control and turned on the television.
The moment the screen lit up, it was all about war.
The war in Tianzu was still spreading.
And the situation in Kunlun State had already reached its tipping point.
Soon after the Egyptian Kingdom, the Marlin Kingdom had also announced that they would close their borders, and only allowed refugees to establish refugee camps 50 kilometers away from the kingdom’s borders.
And outside the Marlin Kingdom, hundreds of forces, big and small, were already on standby with their weapons drawn.
Officers and rebels…
Local warlords and the central army…
The conflict seemed to have intensified overnight.
The host of the televised broadcast was already somewhat numb to it.
“Following its announcement to invalidate the peace agreement signed with the northern Kunlun authorities last year, the Daer front of the northern Kunlun Republic…”
“The leader of the Boer tribe of the southern Kunlun Kingdom, Jawal, announced at three o’clock this morning at imperial capital time that due to the king’s ignorance, the central federal government has seized power… The Boer tribe has declared its independence from the southern Kunlun Kingdom from now on…”
“The country’s name is the Boer kingdom… Jawal has proclaimed himself as king!”
On the television, a man in military uniform sat atop a tank.
He was waving at countless people.
“The southern Kunlun Kingdom has refuted Jawal’s words and announced that in order to maintain the unity of the country, the army of the southern Kunlun Kingdom will pay any price!”
“At the same time, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the southern Kunlun Kingdom has issued an announcement. It said that due to the long-term disobedience of the northern tribes to the central government, they have opposed the country and revoked their status of autonomy…”
Ling Ping’an was completely dumbfounded when he heard this.
However, this was how illusionary the Kunlun State was.
It had always been like this for the past two hundred years.
On that land, warlords, dictators, and tyrants…
Just like the leeks on land, there were endless waves of them.
There were very few people who were serious about building the country.
Even if they occasionally appeared, they would be quickly overthrown by others.
That land seemed to have been cursed.
Other than the chaos of war, famine, and plague, Ling Ping’an had rarely heard of any good news from Kunlun state.
It was to the extent that on the internet, netizens from all over the world had made memes out of Emperor Xia and the Misfortune Chief.
“Sigh!” He shook his head. He couldn’t bear to watch, so he turned off the television.
Man could only be practical since there was no use imposing his own views onto anyone else.
……
In Cape Town, the capital of Kunlun State, it was still early in the morning, and the stars were dim.
A man in a hood followed the crowd and entered one of the few modern cities in Kunlun State.
It was different from most of the countries in the State.
Almost one-third of the population of the Republic of South Kunlun was from the Land of Qin.
In Cape Town, this proportion was as high as 70%!
This was a remnant of the colonial era.
Therefore, entering Cape Town was like entering the Land of Qin.
Skyscrapers rose from the ground.
Children from the slums kicked cuju at the foot of the skyscrapers.
The Kingdom of South Kunlun was a country strong in cuju.
It had won the Cuju World Championship many times!
But… that was about it.
For 200 years, this land had always been filled with vendettas, wars, and plagues.
Even the political system of the country had changed several times.
From the initial republic to the federation to the present kingdom.
Tens of millions of people had paid the price for this.
Blood dyed this land red for every single transcendent diamond dug out.
That’s right!
Beneath the ground of the Kingdom of South Kunlun was the world’s most abundant and highest quality of transcendent diamonds.
These transcendent gems could be used widely in almost every ritual.
They were also the treasures that the Holy See of the Land of Qin needed the most.
The most important ingredient in the holy anointing oil required for the Sacred Anointing Ceremony was the high quality transcendent diamond produced by the Republic of South Kunlun.
Furthermore, they could only be made from the highest quality transcendent diamonds.
Hence, the war had never left this land.
This country was also the country that was most influenced and infiltrated by the Land of Qin.
Almost all its power factions had the backing of the Land of Qin.
For example, the current royal family of South Kunlun was established from the Bourbon dynasty of Francois.
The Kingdom of South Kunlun was also known as the Bourbon of South Kunlun.
The Boer tribe that was rebelling was also from the Land of Qin.
They were immigrants from the Federal Republic.
The Federal Republic and Francois were enemies that couldn’t be reconciled.
Apart from that, the United Kingdom of Britannia and the Kingdom of Fran also had their own representatives in this country.
In essence, the Republic of South Kunlun was the shadow of the Land of Qin.
For the past 200 years, both kept coming into the spotlight one after the other.
Their conflict had been centered around the transcendent diamonds.
Until the people of South Kunlun were finally tired, and a prince was appointed as the king from Francois.
The prince came from the Land of Qin and had brought the family heirloom of the Francois Bourbon royal family — a bottle of sacred ointment from the Holy See.
The existence of this bottle of ointment not only meant the support of the Holy See.
It also meant that the royal family of South Kunlun would be qualified to give birth to angels.
The anointing ceremony was a ritual.
It was a ritual to receive the strength of the Kingdom of Heaven.
The hooded man knew this very well.
Because that bottle of sacred ointment from the royal family of South Kunlun had come from him.
He walked forward, ignoring the reserve soldiers who were marching out of the city in response to the mobilization order.
He passed through the Cape Town Cathedral.
Through the King’s Avenue.
To the front of the palace.
The palace of the southern Kunlun Kingdom was a typical palace in the Land of Qin.
Its structure was even based upon the palace in the Kingdom of Fran, Fontainebleau.
In the square in front of the palace, there was a huge fountain.
In the fountain, there were several stone sculptures of angels.
Outsiders would only think that these angels were non-living things.
But the hooded man knew that these were the angels of the royal family of South Kunlun that had once lived.
Although they were just Principalities.
Principalities that were only a class higher than the Throne angels.
Even so…
They were guardians.
They guarded all the stones that were selected.
That was this country!
Therefore, the hooded man approached the fountain.
The petrified bodies of the dead angels began to slowly melt.
Their stone skin began to peel off.
Holy light emerged from their bodies, and a pair of wings slightly unfolded.
“Heresy!” An angel statue holding a long spear admonished crossly, “This is not the place for you to be!”
“Leave immediately!”
“Ha!” The hooded man laughed. “Heresy?!”
“Then what about all of you?”
He stretched out his hand, and balls of holy light welled up from his hand.
His hood was illuminated by the light, revealing his dark and deep face.
Under his robe, something was squirming.
Fwsssh!
Six pairs of wings spread out completely.
However, they were not gold.
They were gray, surrounded by the aura of death and pain.
He raised his head, and his hood shattered bit by bit. The holy light in his hand turned from milky white to black.
He clenched it lightly!
These black balls of light were all shattered.
“You’re still not waking up?”
“Sons of Shemhyr!”
“The time for liberation has come!”
The angels in the fountain all struggled in pain.
Under their skin, balls of gray light were squirming.
They started to groan in pain.
One by one, they threw their heads back and roared, “Ah!!!!!”
The long roars stirred up the wind and clouds.
Even the sky became gray.
Dark clouds rolled and piled up.
At this time, the guards of the palace were finally alarmed into action.
Harvey, the general of the Republic of South Kunlun, who was guarding the palace, immediately jumped up.
Thus, he saw a scene that he would never forget.
The angels who were supposed to protect the kingdom of South Kunlun were all controlled by some kind of gray light.
They roared into the sky.
Their mouths spewed out some gray sheen.
The divine wings on their backs were gradually stained by gray and dark gas.
Their features also started to become distorted.
Blasphemy!
This was the ultimate blasphemy!
So, he looked at the man standing in front of the fountain.
Six pairs of huge gray or black wings spread across the entire square.
That dark and deep face seemed to be stained by ink.
Where he stood, masses of black ink-like liquid were rippling.
Caw caw caw…
Caw caw caw…
From somewhere, countless crows flew over.
These crows landed on the ground and began to peck at the black liquid.
Caw caw caw caw…
Caw caw caw caw…
The crows cried out agitatedly and fought over it.
Harvey only felt his hands and feet go cold.
“The Angel of Death…”
“The Death Messenger…”
He fell into an endless abyss of fear.
He understood that the person in front of him was a fallen angel.
Moreover, he was a big shot among fallen angels!
This kind of evil was something not even Lucifer could compare to!
“What are you afraid of?” A golden face appeared in one of the man’s heads. That face bathed in milky white holy light looked extremely benevolent and holy. “Why are you afraid of me?”
“I am one of the seven great foundations of the Kingdom of Heaven!”
There was also a sinister voice from the dark face that echoed. “The restraint of the Seven Virtues!”
The golden face said in an extremely benevolent manner, “The anger of the Seven Deadly Sins!”
“I am Shariye!” The dark face said.
“I am Samael!” The golden face was extremely benevolent and peaceful.
The two voices said at the same time, “Poor child… The reason why you are afraid is that you have not understood the true intention of the Father who created us and the Lord who created the world…”
“Let me…”
“Teach you the truth of the Lord and the Father!”
The angels who had been groaning in the fountain finally ended their long cries.
They stood up, their black wings filled with hatred and resentment.
They looked at the dark man.
The atmosphere in the square became extremely eerie and cold.
The guards and soldiers who rushed out were so scared that they trembled and did not dare to move.
Especially when the other party said his honorific name.
Everyone fell into dead silence.
Shariye!
The King of Angels!
The embodiment of restraint and patience of the Seven Virtues!
The King of Angels, in charge of death and protection.
The teacher of Moses and the keeper of the tomb.
The protector of the Holy Mother’s soul.
The angel of the Moon of Death!
But he was more than that.
He had also revealed his other identity.
The King of Fallen Angels.
Samael of the Wrath!
When he had revealed this secret of absolute taboos, Harvey knew that he would be dying today with absolute certainty.
Such a secretive taboo could not be known by mortals.
Because once it was spread out, it would shake the foundation of the entire Crusaders religion.
Even if he did not die here…
He would definitely be regarded as a heretic by the Holy See and sent to burn at the stake.
But…
Hadn’t the King of Archangels, the angel of the Moon of Death, Shariye, fallen?
He had fallen in Athens, Greece.
He had died under the divine weapon of the God of War, and even his corpse had been dismembered.
If he was really dead…
Then, who was the Shariye standing here?
With that thought, Harvey immediately understood that this was another taboo!
Taboos that involved the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven.
So, he sighed and understood what he should do.
“Heresy!” He shouted, “Die!”
Then, he used up all that he had in him to rush over.
“Ha!” The six-winged angel who claimed to be Shariye and Samael only laughed.
The few principality angels who had completely fallen started to laugh strangely.
“Ants!” They screamed, “Die!”
Black and gray spiritual lights of blasphemy rushed out of their bodies.
The entire square instantly became a slaughterhouse.
The sons of Shemhyr had won their liberation and found their true selves!
But Shariye ignored everything.
He moved forward gently and walked towards the palace.
Along the way, anyone who tried to stop him all met with immediate deaths.
Crows fell on the corpses of the dead and kept pecking at them.
In just a short while, the entire palace was covered in blood and white bones were scattered outside the attic.
Shariye walked directly to the king’s bedroom in the palace.
Dozens of guards curled up into a ball while trembling.
They cried out and cursed in despair.
But it was useless.
The crows pounced on them and pecked them to death in an instant.
Even the king, who was already terrified out of his wits, was no exception.
But Shariye did not even look at these people.
He only walked to the depths of the palace and gently raised his hand to open a cellar.
He lowered his head and looked at the cellar.
“Your Highness Shemhyr…”
“The sun of our Father and Lord…”
“It’s time for you to wake up!”
A seven or eight-year-old fair-skinned little girl crawled out of the cellar.
Her entire body was covered in blood.
Two golden eyes sparkled on her porcelain, doll-like innocent face.
“Your Holiness, Shariye!” She looked affectionately at the six-winged fallen angel in front of her. “Thank you for your hard work!”
Tiny wings bloomed behind her.
“It wasn’t hard!” Both of Shariye’s faces smiled. “For the sake of our great plan…”
“Any sacrifice is worth it!”
“Yes!” The little girl smiled radiantly.
At this moment, countless crows were cawing both inside and outside the palace.
As they cawed, their bodies melted at the same time.
Slowly, they turned into lumps of flesh and blood.
The flesh and blood flowed slowly to the bones on the ground.
And so, one by one, the people who had died just now began to stand up.
They looked no different from before.
They even remembered all the memories and emotions of their bodies.
The only difference was that… their souls had changed into something else.
It was like a computer, where the hard drive and data were all there.
It was just a different operating system.
When they stood up, Shariye had already walked out holding hands with the little girl.
The king who had just stood up saw the two of them and brought all the soldiers to kneel down together.
To welcome their true master.
The little girl looked at them and revealed a brilliant smile.
She gently used the language from the east and chanted, “There are trees in the garden and cicadas on them. Cicadas live high up in the garden and cry mournfully as they drink the dew, not knowing that the mantids are behind them…”
“The mantids are bent over and want to take the cicadas, but they don’t know that the oriole is beside them. The oriole stretches its neck and wants to peck the mantids, but it doesn’t know that the a bullet is aimed at it from below…”
Her childish voice was extremely pleasant to the ear.
She raised her head and looked at the person who was holding her hand.
“This is really a good story!” She said.
“Yes!” Shariye laughed. “It is indeed a good story!”
“We now have our own home!”
1.30 a.m. local time in Kunlun State.
The king of the Kingdom of South Kunlun announced that he had abdicated due to domestic and foreign affairs. His daughter, the eldest princess who was only eight years old, changed her name to Shemhyr and became the king.
She was known as Shemhyr the first.
Soon after, the young Queen entrusted the power of the country to Samael, special advisor of the Royal Family and a doctorate from the University of Cape Town.
Samael immediately called up all parties in the Republic of South Kunlun, inviting them to gather in Cape Town to ‘discuss peace matters’.
That night.
In the entire Republic of South Kunlun, many people who were preparing to leave their hometown due to the chaos of war and flee back to the Land of Qin for refuge saw and heard countless crows crowing outside their houses and on the streets.
Someone thought that it was strange, so he used his phone to record the crows’ cries.
When he played it again, he realized that the crows’ cries seemed to be in some kind of language.
After using the computer to match them, he realized that this language was the Guangnan dialect from the eastern Great Xia.
The crows’ cries were up to 50% similar to this language!
Furthermore…
After computer comparison and audio analysis, he was horrified to discover that these crows seemed to be reciting an ancient oriental fable.
It was said that there were trees in the garden and cicadas on them. The cicadas lived high up in the garden and wailed mournfully as they drank dew. They didn’t know that the mantids were behind them…
…
Ling Ping’an ate his breakfast and scrolled through his phone.
Suddenly, a message appeared in his UsChat group.
First, some author had forwarded a site, and then the entire group had exploded.
July newbie: How terrifying!
Xinfeng: How terrifying!
Qi Peijia: I’m still young, don’t scare me… It’s too terrifying!
Ling Ping’an looked at it and opened the webpage curiously. He found that it came from a public account. The title was: The crows of South Kunlun are actually reciting…
He scrolled further down, and found an audio file.
Under the audio, its text read: I’ve just downloaded this audio from the South Kunlun Kingdom’s website. This is too strange, everyone listen to it! Many people agree that these crows are reciting the fable ‘Shao Yuan’ in Guangnan dialect!
Ling Ping’an blinked and curiously opened the HP Audio.
From the cell phone came the cawing of crows.
Ga ga… Ga ga ga…
It sounded familiar…
A little like the Guangnan dialect.
But…
If one listened carefully, he’ll find that it actually doesn’t.
Also, there was a lot of noise in the background.
But…
Some of the clips did sound somewhat like a flock of crows reciting.
Ling Ping’an could accurately hear that there were several parts of the pronunciation that was similar to the ‘Mantis’ and ‘Oriole’ in the Guangnan dialect.
However…
“This thing most likely got processed in its later stages, didn’t it?!” He laughed.
He had encountered similar situations many times.
Nowadays, in order to attract attention, many people were willing to throw away their dignity, let alone their moral integrity.
……
In the Church of Bones.
The King of Angels on the Holy Seat was listening to an audio recording.
“The mantis stalks the cicada, but the oriole follows behind?” He laughed.
He could understand his brother’s words.
“Is this a warning to me?”
He lowered his wings.
“Or it could be a message to me!”
No matter what, this was his brother’s choice.
The choice of a traitor.
It was also the path that the Lord and the Father had long decided for him.
So…
“Don’t bother about the Kunlun State!” The King of Angels said to his bishops, “Now…”
“Our focus is here!”
“We want to take back the power that was usurped!”
The zealous bishops listened and immediately became excited.
Who didn’t want to go back to a thousand years ago?
The era when letters of indulgence could be sold to the king?
Who did not want to control all the power from the secular world to the Kingdom of Heaven?
Most of all…
They could cleanse themselves of their sins and ascend to Heaven to be with the Lord!