Chapter 501: Believers, Follow Me to Slay the Heretic Zero!

"You damn traitor! You're the one who leaked..." Covered in wounds, Zero glared with murderous intent, his fury almost impossible to contain.

But before he could finish, an even angrier voice cut him off.

"You damn heretic! You are detested by the gods! If not for you, why would the Primal Angel still be slumbering?!"

Heilong's furious curse left Zero stunned. What kind of nonsense was this?

Me? The Primal Pope, a heretic?

Only then did Zero notice how the hundred thousand cultists were looking at him. Something was wrong. Was that disgust? Resentment?

Just what had happened while I was away?!

What the hell did that bastard Heilong do to my people?

"Cultists, heed my command! Heilong is a spy sent by the Temple of God Slaying! Follow me and execute him!"

The hundred thousand cultists just exchanged glances in absolute silence.

Zero widened his eyes in disbelief. Were these really the same devout believers who had followed him for years, the ones who would lay down their lives at his single word?

"Are you deaf? Did you not hear your Pope's command?!"

The hundred thousand cultists remained entirely unmoved.

Zero was consumed by fury, his body trembling. "You... have you all betrayed your faith?!"

A cultist suddenly stood up, glaring angrily. "You're the one who betrayed the faith! You are the heretic!"

Another cultist rose to their feet. "Someone detested by the gods isn't fit to be our Pope! Only the Black Dragon Pope can lead the Primal Divine Cult!"

"..." Zero stared in stunned silence.

In that moment, Zero's mind collapsed into absolute chaos. He even suspected he had been struck by an Illusion Technique. How could these devout zealots actually question their own Pope?

It felt like raising a child for over a decade, only for them to suddenly announce that you weren't their father, and that Uncle Wang next door was their real dad.

More and more people stepped forward to voice their support for the Black Dragon Pope. Even though Zero had spent decades—even centuries—building bonds with them... zealots didn't care about feelings. They only cared about faith.

Just as they had once abandoned their own families to join the Primal Divine Cult, they could now abandon Zero and throw themselves into the arms of the Black Dragon Pope.

"The Black Dragon Pope is the true divine chosen! Only he can lead us to awaken the Primal Angel!"

Basking in the fervent support of the cultists, Heilong unconsciously straightened his posture. Clasping his hands behind his back, he looked down at the former Pope Zero with absolute contempt.

"Heretic Zero, you heard them, didn't you? I am the Pope now! In consideration of the many years you spent toiling for the Primal Divine Cult, I will spare your life this once. Even if you lacked merit, you at least put in the effort. Leave. You are no longer welcome in the Primal Divine Domain."

"Heilong!" Zero roared. "What the hell did you do to my cultists?!"

"Hmph!" Heilong sneered. "They were blinded by you for years. Now, they've simply abandoned the darkness to embrace the light."

"Alas." Su Mu let out a long sigh as he stepped out from the crowd, looking at Zero with a face full of pity. "Zero, you really should just leave. If you truly believe in the Primal Angel and are willing to sacrifice everything for them, you need to let go of your selfish desires and step down for the Black Dragon Pope.

After all, only the Black Dragon Pope is fit to lead the Primal Divine Cult."

"Pride, even you..." Zero's composure fractured even further. "Just what kind of brainwashing potion did Heilong feed you all?!"

Su Mu shook his head. "The Black Dragon Pope hasn't brainwashed us. Everything is the will of the Primal Angel..."

"Bishop of Pride, why waste your breath on him? This heretic is completely, utterly stubborn. If you ask me, we should execute him right now to prevent any further trouble."

Heilong waved a hand and declared loudly, "Cultists, heed my command! Follow your Pope and slay this beast!"

"We obey the Pope's decree!" tens of thousands of cultists roared in unison.

However, Zero had been the Pope for many years. He still held sway among the masses and retained a faction of diehard loyalists.

"Pope Zero isn't a heretic! There has to be a misunderstanding here!"

"Exactly! We all know how devout Pope Zero is. How could he possibly..."

"Shut up!" Heilong bellowed. "Anyone who disobeys my command is a heretic! Kill them!"

The hundred thousand cultists instantly erupted into chaos. Some supported Pope Zero, while others supported the Black Dragon Pope. The two factions immediately clashed in a massive melee.

Ultimately, the Black Dragon Pope held the numerical advantage. He had around seventy thousand supporters, while Zero only had thirty thousand.

After all, Su Mu hadn't had enough time to hypnotize them with his Illusion Technique. If Zero had returned just one day later, Su Mu could have guaranteed a total defection of all one hundred thousand cultists.

As the cultists slaughtered each other, Heilong and Zero could no longer hold back and finally clashed.

The two demigods struck with unbridled fury, every move meant to kill. This was a war of faith and a battle for the title of Pope. Neither side had any room to retreat.

Meanwhile, Su Mu stood off to the side, watching the show. Not long ago, he had instigated a massive war between Saint Lords, and now he had sparked a battle between demigods. He realized he was getting quite skilled at this sort of thing.

Instigating a war between demigods actually felt easier than manipulating the Saint Lords. It was mostly because zealots were incredibly easy to fool.

The more absolute a person's worldview was, the narrower their perspective became, making them incredibly easy to blind.

Zealots were the perfect example. There was no denying the strength of their faith, but it was precisely because of that unwavering devotion that they were so vulnerable. Once deceived in the name of God, they would lose all capacity for critical thought, blindly placing their absolute trust in the divine just as they always had.

"Devour Heaven and Absorb Earth!" An impossibly massive black hole manifested in front of Heilong, completely swallowing the millions of rays of holy light bursting from Zero.

By this point, Zero was already running on fumes. He had been injured by three demigods from the Temple of God Slaying earlier, so naturally, facing Heilong now put him at a massive disadvantage.

But Zero didn't just sit and wait to die. He unleashed a terrifying wave of Primal Divinity. The God's Eye on his forehead snapped open, resonating with the Primal Angel high up in the firmament.

Holy light cascaded down from the Primal Angel and poured into Zero's body, causing his aura to violently skyrocket.

"Hmph! Did you think you were the only one who could borrow the Primal Angel's power?" Heilong sneered. He also unleashed his Primal Divinity, channeling the Primal Angel's power into his own body.

However, Heilong was just a latecomer to the faith. He ultimately couldn't compare to an orthodox believer like Zero, and the power he managed to channel was noticeably weaker.

Fortunately, he still had tens of thousands of zealots backing him!

Over half of the cultists had already been killed or wounded, dyeing the earth red with their blood. The surviving fifty thousand zealots were almost entirely Heilong's supporters.

Roaring in fury, they channeled the Primal Angel's power into their own bodies, joining Heilong to besiege Zero.

As time dragged on, the heavily injured Zero couldn't hold out any longer. His wounds worsened rapidly, and his body swayed, on the verge of collapse.

Su Mu didn't intervene. He just waited—waited for his opponent to use the Xuantian Origin.

"Die, heretic!" Heilong's hands flickered with dark light as he violently tore through Zero's holy light barrier. Beneath Zero's horrified gaze, Heilong threw a punch that completely obliterated his head.

Blood sprayed like a fountain from the shattered stump of his neck. The headless corpse swayed for a moment before collapsing heavily to the ground.