Chapter 157: The Four Great Envoys of God

The temple summoned these divine attendants back solely to maintain order at the ritual site.

Although the name sounded lofty and grand, these so-called divine attendants were, in essence, no different from ordinary city-guard soldiers.

Ning Xiu was assigned alongside a young man named Yu Wenxiao, guarding a passageway on the west side of the temple square.

Along the way, this man had intentionally or unintentionally dropped hints to Ning Xiu about the matters of the Lunar Wheel Temple—precisely the information Ning Xiu was eager to acquire. On several occasions, whenever Ning Xiu’s identity was on the verge of being suspected, it was Yu Wenxiao who skillfully smoothed things over.

Yet, whenever Ning Xiu attempted to probe further, Yu Wenxiao would simply laugh it off, speak in ambiguous generalities, and deftly steer the conversation elsewhere.

From Ning Xiu’s perspective, Yu Wenxiao was clearly far from a simple temple attendant; he had evidently arrived with a hidden agenda. Moreover, it appeared he did not stand on the side of the temple.

Through Yu Wenxiao, Ning Xiu learned that three temple emissaries would be arriving this time.

Every emissary was a practitioner who had transcended mortality. Combined with the master of the Black Gold City branch, this meant the Lunar Wheel Temple would field a total of four experts of the mortal-transcending realm.

As long as they had not reached the fifth level of the mortal-transcending realm, they were all nothing more than walking treasures in Ning Xiu’s eyes.

The eighteenth day of the fifth month was known to the people of the Death Desert as the Crimson Moon Day. On this day, the Lunar Wheel Temple would hold a grand divine enlightenment ritual.

Every branch temple held it right on schedule, but this year in Black Gold City, due to the temple directly dispatching three major emissaries to participate, the event had become exceptionally grandiose.

The eighteenth day of the fifth month was precisely the third day of Ning Xiu’s arrival in Black Gold City.

In front of the Black Gold City branch temple, the massive square was already packed to the brim with a sea of people.

Attendants wearing Crimson Moon badges orderly maintained the crowd control across the square, among whom were Ning Xiu and Yu Wenxiao.

In truth, the believers who came to worship were exceptionally well-behaved, requiring Ning Xiu and the others to exert almost no effort at all.

"Brother Ding, in another hour, the big shots from the temple are going to make their appearance. I wonder which emissaries the temple has dispatched this year," Yu Wenxiao said in a low voice, glancing toward the direction of the temple.

"I only recently joined the temple, so I'm not familiar with the various emissaries," Ning Xiu replied, looking directly at Yu Wenxiao without the slightest bit of evasion.

Faced with such basic common knowledge—something every temple believer would naturally know—Yu Wenxiao showed not a trace of surprise on his face, acting as though everything was completely normal and unproblematic.

"There are twenty to thirty temple emissaries in total, and every single one of them is an existence that has surpassed the mundane realm. If we talk about the strongest among them, they are undoubtedly the Four Great Emissaries. Each of them guards one of the four cardinal directions—east, west, south, and north—of the Death Desert, and their combat prowess is even more formidable than that of these branch masters. Any one of them can single-handedly take on five other emissaries."

Yu Wenxiao clearly knew far more than an average believer.

Hearing Yu Wenxiao’s words, Ning Xiu’s heart sank slightly. According to the description, the so-called Four Great Emissaries possessed at least the cultivation of the fourth heavenly layer of the mortal-transcending realm.

The first three layers of the mortal-transcending realm involved refining the physical body and its hundred bones; while gaps existed between practitioners, the disparity would not be this astronomical. However, once one reached the fourth heavenly layer, the situation changed completely.

Should one of the Four Great Emissaries appear, the best-case scenario for Ning Xiu would be facing two experts of the fourth mortal-transcending layer simultaneously, alongside two other emissaries of the mortal-transcending realm.

As for whether there were other experts of the mortal-transcending realm within the branch temple besides the master himself, Ning Xiu had no way of knowing.

Time slipped away swiftly. In the blink of an eye, an hour had passed.

Suddenly, a flash of light illuminated the upper reaches of the temple, casting a crimson radiance downward upon the square.

The stone sculpture of the Moon Goddess resting on the altar at the very center of the square began to shimmer with a faint halo, looking almost as if it were about to spring to life.

"They're coming!"

Yu Wenxiao whispered, his expression turning solemn.

Before his voice faded, a group of people slowly walked out from the interior of the temple.

Marching at the very front were ranks of temple attendants clad in moon-white combat robes with curved sabers tucked at their waists.

These were attendants hailing from the main temple, and every single one of them possessed at least the cultivation level of a first-rank expert. Standing together in such numbers, their collective imposing aura instantly materialized, and the heavy wave of oppression caused the entire square to fall silent in an instant.

By comparison, Ning Xiu and the other attendants responsible for keeping order at the bottom of the square looked much more like a ragtag militia.

Even a fraction of these people, if transferred to Lingnan County, would be enough to sweep away every single faction and organization aside from the government, the aristocratic clans, and the bizarre alien forces.

Even the Six-Door Bureau, judging solely by experts within the mortal realm, definitely could not match the numbers of the Lunar Wheel Temple.

Standing amidst the crowd, Ning Xiu carefully scrutinized this group, though he soon withdrew his gaze.

For he sensed that several even more powerful auras had appeared.

Following the dozens of Lunar Wheel Temple attendants were three emissaries draped in moon-colored robes. Behind them, two figures walked side by side out of the temple doors.

These final two individuals were unmistakably the central figures of the entire procession. One of them was none other than the master of the Lunar Wheel Temple's Black Gold City branch, a man named Wuku.

Wuku looked like an old man of sixty or seventy, his back hunched, and he even leaned upon a walking cane for support.

The other person was a middle-aged man with a sinister, malevolent gaze. Combined with a towering, hook-like eagle nose, he looked like a powerhouse at first glance.

"Wild Hawk!"

The moment this man appeared, Ning Xiu acutely noticed that Yu Wenxiao’s complexion had turned ashen.

As this massive group slowly emerged from the temple and walked down the central path, not a single person among the tens of thousands gathered in the square dared to make the slightest sound.

The white-robed attendants marched up to the altar at the center of the square, came to a halt, and dispersed to stand guard around the base of the altar.

Only the three emissaries, along with Wuku and Wild Hawk, slowly ascended the altar steps.

It was only then that a murmur of sound began to ripple through the crowd.

"To think that Wild Hawk, the most powerful among the Four Great Emissaries, would not be participating in the ritual at the main temple, but instead came all the way to this tiny Black Gold City," Yu Wenxiao murmured under his breath.

From his perspective, this was clearly abnormal.

Generally speaking, on Crimson Moon Day, the Lunar Wheel Temple would only dispatch a single emissary to each city's branch, and it was virtually impossible for one of the Four Great Emissaries to make a personal appearance.

This was done specifically to avoid disrupting the normal operations of the individual branches.

What Yu Wenxiao did not know, however, was that just days prior, the Lunar Wheel Temple had received instructions from the "Moon Goddess," revealing that the bearer of the Twin-Life Flower would appear in the northeastern sector of the desert.

Wild Hawk and his companions had come specifically to hunt down Ning Xiu, and their arrival merely coincided with Crimson Moon Day.

Passing through Black Gold City, it was impossible for them not to attend such a grand occasion.

This was what created the abnormal situation in Yu Wenxiao’s eyes—an outcome he clearly had never anticipated.

As Yu Wenxiao hesitated over whether his original plan should proceed as intended, he turned his head only to discover that Ning Xiu, who had been standing right beside him, had vanished without a trace.