Page 562

Now, this commercial city with an original population of 300,000, after simple renovations, became the imperial capital where Sandamar would ascend the throne as emperor.

Most of the human residents were relocated or expelled, replaced by a large influx of Beastmen. The city's defenses were rebuilt, districts were reorganized, and various religious structures from the Temple Era were demolished, replaced with Beastmen symbols. These tasks had actually been planned years in advance; otherwise, it would have been impossible to prepare for such a grand coronation ceremony in just one month.

At dawn, 360 horns sounded with deep, resonant blasts.

Thousands of massive colorful banners representing the various tribes of the Beastmen stood erected around the central square of the city. Each banner signified the presence of a chieftain from a major Beastman tribe who would attend the upcoming ceremony. The main gate of Sandamar's new imperial palace faced this very square—the site of the coronation.

After the horns sounded nine times, under the guidance of servitor clans, the leaders and chieftains of each tribe gradually gathered in the square. Led by the chieftains of the Five Great Combat Clans, the leaders took their positions according to their status, forming a large circle with one gap. Since Sandamar's ascension to emperor followed the ancestral customs of the Beastmen, he had already relinquished his position as the Lion Clan's chieftain, passing it to another elder of the clan. Thus, in the square, the five great chieftains occupied five points of a hexagon, with the Lion Clan at the center, facing the palace. To the left were the Bear Clan and Yak Clan, while to the right were the Lion Clan and Wolf Clan. Races like the Tiger Clan and Leopard Clan stood behind the Lion Clan, while leaders of vassal or peripheral tribes stood behind their respective main clans, leaving only the side facing the palace empty.

Next to arrive were the Shamans of the War God Temple. Since the temple fully supported Sandamar's coronation, the War God Pope himself attended, accompanied by an unprecedented 24 Great Shamans—the highest possible honor. These Great Shamans, along with other ranks of Shamans and the temple's core knights, numbered nearly 400. Their position was at the center of the Five Great Combat Clans, where a five-tiered platform had already been constructed from massive logs and bronze, ancient and imposing—the very place where the ceremony would take place.

Chen Xuanfeng was originally just a commoner of the Snow Wolf Clan. Even after establishing his own family, he remained a branch of the Wolf Clan's Snow Wolf Tribe. By status, he should have stood far behind the Wolf Clan chieftain. However, he also held the identity of a War God's Knight, making him part of the temple's highest echelons. Thus, he stepped out of the ranks of the Five Great Combat Clans and stood beside the Great Shamans, his position second only to the Pope.

When the Pope ascended the platform, the horns sounded once more, accompanied by hundreds of drums and twelve great bells. Amidst the grand music, Sandamar emerged from the slowly opening palace gates, clad in majestic robes of gold and red, surrounded by his guards.

Unlike the extravagant ceremonies of humans, the founding rites of the ancient Beastmen Empire were simple, consisting of five main steps: offering prayers to the War God, the Pope's coronation, blood ritual sacrifice, Shaman blessings, and homage from the hundred tribes. The subsequent grand feasts and city-wide celebrations were human-influenced additions, far less significant than the core rituals.

Sandamar was in high spirits today. From afar, Chen Xuanfeng could see that despite having lost an arm and an eye, the Beastman king's pride and confidence remained unshaken. He wore only a black eyepatch over his missing eye and no prosthetic arm, yet the empty sleeve did not evoke any sense of disability—instead, it radiated an oppressive battle aura.

Sandamar's guards halted at the edge of the square, forming the complete circle with the Five Great Combat Clans. Only Sandamar himself strode forward proudly along the red carpet, stopping at the foot of the platform.

On the platform stood only the Pope and the Great Shamans. The Pope occupied the highest tier, with six Great Shamans on each level below. Though Chen Xuanfeng held high status, he was not permitted to step onto the platform.

As Sandamar stood firm, the Pope above nodded slightly and spread his hands. The Shamans surrounding the platform immediately received the signal and began chanting war chants pulsing with surging magic.

The first step of the ceremony: offering prayers to the War God.

This step initiated the entire ritual. The gathered magic of the Shamans was transmitted upward, amplified layer by layer through the platform, and finally concentrated upon the Pope. Arrayed in ritual vestments, the Pope held the massive spherical artifact, the "Eye of the War God," in his left hand while raising his right hand toward the sky. He chanted an ancient Beastman prayer in a resonant voice. A crimson beam of light erupted from his body, shooting into the heavens and transforming the clouds into brilliant auroras. The swirling clouds formed a colossal vortex, and deeper, more radiant red light descended like a curtain, enveloping the entire city of "Hongtilanie." At the center of the city, atop the platform, the Pope was bathed in a ruby-like glow.

Within the "Eye of the War God," an iris-like luminous sphere appeared, shifting twice before locking onto Sandamar below the platform. The divine pressure emanating from that gaze left no doubt—it was the gaze of a god, surpassing all mortal beings.

This was the prayer to the War God—a grand ritual akin to divine invocation, directly conveying the Beastmen's intent to crown an emperor to their deity. The artifact then invoked the War God's will. What descended was not a divine avatar but a fragment of divine will with little combat power. Yet this alone signified the War God's approval of the emperor's legitimacy, ensuring that even the War God Temple could not easily defy the emperor's authority henceforth.

The crimson light poured down the platform's steps under the gaze of the "Eye of the War God," enveloping Sandamar. Then, from the Pope's position, a voice unlike his own—vast, ancient, and thunderous—addressed Sandamar:

"Bearer of the War Blood, do you seek to establish an empire?" "Yes, I seek to establish an empire!" Sandamar replied without the slightest hesitation, unbowed even before divine majesty.